Reaction to the Walsall victory

By Nathan Jackson
February 17 2007

City got well and truly into the title race with a victory over Walsall on Friday night, moving within 2 points off top spot. City had several great chances to extend the lead, but had to settle for just winning by 2 goals. As expected, Walsall were nothing special and struggled to create chances.

I said recently that if we beat Walsall then we would go on to win promotion from this division, Part 1 of that equation is now complete and now we're well and truly primed for the challenge. I waited until the fixtures on Saturday were completed before writting this report, and looking at the results fills me with optimism, as despite the two teams directly below us having a game in hand each, MK Dons are effectively 4 points behind us because of a significantly lower goal difference.

As for the game itself, there were few things that surprised me about it at all, the first being that virtually no-one in a Lincoln shirt had a terrible game...for a change. Granted there were some that would only got 6 or 7 out of 10, but they still didn't play particulary badly. However, the MOTM is an easy choice this week, Spencer Weir-Daley was simply immense and both finishes were extremely well taken. The fact that people have been saying that he should keep his place in the starting 11 despite Forrester returning on Saturday, is a great indication of how well he's played in recent weeks.

City had several good chances during the whole game, with most coming in the second half but most were either too weak or just off target, and despite Walsall fans, management and club officials say that they dominated the second half, they didn't really trouble us at all in the second half and barely had any chances of target that would have beaten even the worst goalkeepers in the country (in other words, Ross Flitney). I still don't think they are anything special, and just like I've been saying all season, if they go up I'd be very surprised indeed, especially now the pack has caught up. Despite their League position, there are at least 6 sides in this division that are better than Walsall.

Our set-pieces are stilll a bit of a problem, with a lot of them hitting the first defender, being caught by an unchallenged goalkeeper, or just going over everyone and out for a throw in. We're winning these days so it's not that vital but it could still cost us several points through-out the rest of the season.

Whether City can go on and win the title could come down to the fact we play 3 of the current Top 6 in the coming weeks, but other those tough games, on paper City should really be looking at collecting maximum points from at least 80% of the remaining games. I'm not fussed about the title, I'd gladly settle for 3rd place on goal difference.