The long road to that lottery we call the playoffs
By Nathan Jackson
May 10 2007
Lincoln City travel to Bristol Rovers on Saturday evening as both sides try and complete a long and hard season by securing promotion to League One via the playoffs. City haven't been outside of the Top 5 since the second week, whereas Rovers spent the majority of the season in the bottom half of the table. This is how both sides made the playoffs.
AUGUST
Lincoln City’s season started with Adie Moses giving the Imps the lead in a home game against Notts County. City went on to dominate until a Jeff Hughes goal in the 2nd half gave Notts a rather undeserved point. Bristol Rover’s started their season with a tough looking trip to Peterborough United, and it
proved out to be as tough as it looked. Jamie Day opened the scoring for Posh with Butcher and Yeo giving United a 3-0 lead, Sammy Igoe pulled one back before Lloyd Opara made it 4-1 to City.
City’s first away game of the season saw a trip to newly promoted Hereford United, it was another game where the Imps absolutely dominated, coming out with just a 2-1 victory due to a Mark Stallard brace. Bristol Rovers lost by a 2-1 scoreline to Wycombe Wanderers with Hunt getting the Gas’ goal. Despite that defeat they still moved up a place.
4 days later and City somehow beat Torquay despite going into extra-time 1-0 down, at the same time Bristol Rovers beat Grimsby Town. Walsall stole a point at Sincil Bank after yet another game that the Imps controlled, only bad defending prevented the Imps from cementing a place in the Top 3. MK Dons were the latest side to take 3 points off of Bristol Rovers, beating them by a 2-0 scoreline at the NHS. Ex-Bristol Rovers striker, Jamie Forrester had his scoring boots on during a trip to Mansfield, scoring all 4 goals in City’s 4-2 victory. About 160 miles south-west, Lewis Haldane gave Bristol Rovers a single goal victory over Shrewsbury Town.
SEPTEMBER
Lincoln started September well, another Stallard brace and a Gritton goal gave the Imps a deserved 3-1 victory over Accrington Stanley. Bristol Rover’s first game of the 9th month of the year saw a 2-1 defeat send them down to 16th. City record their fourth win at Shrewsbury in a row thanks to Lee Frecklington’s first league goal of the season. Bristol Rovers played out a 0-0 bore draw with Rochdale. They also drew their next game 0-0, this time against Torquay and that moved the Gas down to 18th in the table.
The night before saw the Imps give me a near perfect Birthday present with a 2-1 victory over Macclesfield, it sent the Imps up to second in the table and also saw City become the only side in the Football League not to suffer defeat at this point. That fact lasted just 4 more days as City went down 3-2 at home to MK Dons, yet another draw for Bristol Rovers saw them move up to 17th. Rovers were nervously looking over their shoulders though as they dropped to 21st with a home defeat to Walsall.
At the same time City were ending Wycombe’s 8 match winning run, becoming the first side to win at Wycombe this season and also the win saw them become the only side all season to score 3 goals at Adam’s Park. That win meant City went to Boston knowing a win would mean that City would go top after Walsall didn’t win on the Tuesday evening.
City went on to lose by a 1-0 scoreline thanks to Marriott misjudging a deflected Francis Green shot. A few days later and City lost at home to Bury. In that same period of time, Bristol Rovers beat Hereford but then lost 2-0 to Chester City.
OCTOBER
Lincoln started October by defeat Hartlepool United on a Friday night, Bristol Rovers beat Boston 1-0 the following day. Rovers made it back-to-back wins for the first time with a victory at Notts County. About 100 miles south, the Imps were destroying Barnet and coming away from Underhill with a 5-0 victory. 
The goals continued just one week later for the Imps as a third Jamie Forrester hat-trick, as well as braces from Stallard and Hughes gave the Imps a huge 7-1 victory over Rochdale. There were considerably fewer goals at the Memorial that day, none to be precise as Rovers and Macclesfield faced a stalemate.
The month ended with City traveling to Swindon Town, the Imps were second best for most of the match but Forrester scored his 8th goal of the month to not only give the Imps a vital win, but also sent them top of the table for the first time since the 1997/8 season. Bristol Rovers ended October with a disappointing defeat at Wrexham.
NOVEMBER
What a contrast for the two sides, not only did the Imps lose all 3 league games in November but Bristol Rovers won all 3. City took their proud position at the top of the table to Stockport, despite having some early chances City went on to lose 2-0 and their time at the top was short and sweet, it would be the only time all season that City were top of the table.
Bristol Rovers recorded a narrow 1-0 victory of Mansfield that day. 2 weeks later and City were humbled by a mediocre Darlington team, a 1-3 scoreline flattering the Imps after a truly dire display and it didn’t get any better as Wrexham scored two heavily deflected goals past the Imps a week later to give the Dragons a 2-1 victory.
On the same day Darlington dismantled City, Bristol Rovers again secured victory, this time with a 2-0 scoreline at Bury. A 2-0 victory of Barnet ended the month for Bristol Rovers.
DECEMBER
The Imps and the Gas met on a cold Tuesday night at Sincil Bank in December. To say that the Imps dominated would be a complete understatement. It would not have flatted the Imps to have scored another victory by 5 or 6 goals, we did get the important 3 points with Jamie Forrester’s penalty. Bristol Rovers didn’t even managed a shot on goal until the 92nd minute.
City came straight back down to Earth in a strange game at the Saunders Honda Stadium. Lincoln controlled the game against Chester but somehow came out on the back of a 4-1 defeat. Bristol Rovers spent the same Saturday being beat 2-0 by Hartlepool. The Imps then started a run of 3 local derbies in a row, firstly it was Grimsby Town and City comfortably beat a very lethargic Grimsby side by 2-0. Bristol Rovers also had a local derby that weekend, but they lost 2-1 at Swindon.
Then came the big one as far as the Imps were concerned, Peterborough AWAY. It was Lincoln Present vs the Ghost of Lincoln Past. City beat a Peterborough side full of former Lincoln players by a scoreline of 2-1, both goals coming from unlikely goalscorer, Ryan Amoo. Bristol Rovers gave Accrington a right thumping on the same day, winning 4-0 at the Memorial.
Boxing day saw the Imps record what has turned out to be the only home victory over Boston United in the Football League, Jeff Hughes getting the winning goal by heading in a beautiful team move. Bristol Rovers drew 0-0 with Hereford on this day. Jeff Hughes again scored the winner a few days later for City as he netted the only goal of the game against Wycombe. Bristol Rovers took a highly respectable 2-2 draw at eventual Champions, Walsall.
JANUARY
I don’t know what it is about bad referees at Macclesfield but this season was no different. Macclesfield took the lead via the penalty spot, despite the fact that Shane Nicholson’s “handball” wasn’t even in the area. Hughes equalized before the referee was sucked into Macclesfield’s cheating tactics as he awarded them a second penalty. Bristol Rovers record a 1-0 victory against Torquay.
City then traveled to MK Dons for a game shown live on Sky TV on a very
windy Monday night. That game had everything in it, 3 penalties, 1 red card, 4 goals and a lot of passion from both sides. McLeod gave MK Dons the lead before Morgan handled to give the Dons a penalty, McLeod sent it wide of the target however. Lewington handled to give City a penalty and Jamie Forrester slotted away. Spencer Weir-Daley gave City a 2-1 lead before MK Dons were awarded another penalty in added on time, Morgan was sent off for the offence but the penalty hit the bar. Mark Stallard had a chance to put the Imps 3-1 up, but with 10 seconds the ball was in the City net, 5 seconds later and it would have been full time but it finished 2-2.
Rovers didn’t play the same weekend as the MK Dons game, but they did win at Rochdale the weekend afterwards, Lincoln drew 1-1 with Shrewsbury at Sincil Bank. After not drawing for 4 months, the Imps drew a third game in a row, this time it was the 2-2 draw at Bury, another poor performance for City. Bristol Rovers drew 0-0 yet again, this time with Chester City. FA Cup 4th Round action saw Bristol Rovers travel to Derby County, City entertained Peterborough on the same day and completed the double over their rivals thanks to a Mark Stallard header.
FEBRUARY
Peterborough were Bristol Rovers’ next opponents and the Gas won by a 3-2 scoreline, City lost 3-1 at Notts County that day, yet again it was an incredibly poor performance from the Imps. The following Tuesday saw Bristol Rovers play one of their games in hand, losing 2-1 at home to Darlington. Grimsby beat Bristol Rovers by the odd goal in 7 in a thriller at Blundell Park, meanwhile City beat Torquay just a few miles down the road, Mark Stallard again scoring the winner.
City were again in front of the Sky cameras for the trip to Walsall. Weir-Daley gave City the lead only for Walsall to draw level within a minute. Weir-Daley restored the lead before half time and City went on to win 2-1 and move to within just 2 points of Walsall. That victory at Walsall would turn out to be the last time the Imps won on the road this season. Rovers got a respectable draw out of MK Dons the next day.
Bristol Rovers wouldn’t play another League game in February, but City ended the month disappointingly with a shocking 4-1 home reverse to Hereford and a highly disappoint 2-2 draw at Accrington Stanley.
MARCH
Rovers yet again drew 0-0, this time with Shrewsbury just a day before City lost at home to Mansfield by a 2-1 scoreline. It was yet another game City had been controlling before a penalty out of no-where changed the swing of the game. Another Rovers’ game in hand saw a disappointing 1-1 draw at Accrington. City then traveled to Hartlepool, a side that hadn’t lost since the same day that City lost top spot in the League. Paul Green gave City the lead and City had plenty of chances to make the win certain, but they couldn’t score again and paid for it when Nat Brown decided to play basketball in the area. A 92nd minute penalty gave Hartlepool the draw.
Bristol Rovers suffered a shock defeat at Boston the following day. The following week saw Lee Frecklington’s stunner beat Barnet, it would be the last time City would win for quite a while. Bristol Rovers beat Notts County that day before beating Stockport with another game in hand.
The final defeat of the regular for Bristol Rovers came with a surprise home defeat to Wrexham. City lost at home to Swindon in front of the Sky cameras the day afterwards. Yet another game in hand saw Bristol Rovers beat Wycombe Wanderers. City spent the weekend controlling a game at Rochdale, only to concede two of the very fw realistic shots on goal that Rochdale had.
APRIL AND MAY
Bristol Rovers lost the JP Trophy Final to Doncaster on April Fools Day before winning at Mansfield and at home to Bury on Bank Holiday Weekend. City drew 0-0 with Stockport, whereas a 1-1 draw at Darlington should have been a win but the linesman didn’t award a last minute goal after it had crossed the goal by nearly 18 inches.
City’s shocking form continued with a 3-0 defeat against Wrexham, however, they would turn out to be the last goals City would concede in the regular season, in what would turn out to be the last defeat of the regular season. Bristol Rovers spent that same Saturday by drawing at Barnet. City and Rovers met again and this time it was a far more even contest than the game at Sincil Bank. City had some great opportunities early on but eventually just kept giving the ball away to Bristol Rovers. Whilst Rovers struggled to get shots on target, the Imps were hitting the post 4 times and the game ended 0-0. It could have been maximum points for City if Jamie Forrester had been put through after a defensive mistake in the final 5 minutes.
That result meant that Bristol Rovers were the only side outside of the Top 7 that finish above City. They went and won at Macclesfield in yet another game in hand. City secured a 0-0 draw at Grimsby Town whereas Bristol Rovers moved into the final playoff place ahead of the final weekend. Neither side were guaranteed of the playoffs, City needed just a draw to guarantee the playoffs whilst a win would guarantee that the Imps would play at home in the second leg. Bristol Rovers needed to either match or better Stockport’s results. City won 2-0 against Chester City and secured 5th place.
Hartlepool took the lead against Rovers, they themselves needing a decent result to win the League. It was now in Stockport’s hands and they were establishing a huge lead at Darlington. Rovers equalized but it still wasn’t enough for them, they had to win and the news wasn’t good from Darlington…..Stockport were 5-0 up. Bristol Rovers then surprisingly took the lead and 2-1. Now it was down to Shrewsbury Town, if they won then they would face City, if they lost they would be out all together. They were 2-1 up going into added on time and were set to face the Imps…..until Grimsby scored a late, late equalizer. That goal meant that City and Bristol Rovers will face each other this Saturday.
What happens next is anyone’s guess. In little over 2 weeks, Lincoln, Bristol Rovers, Shrewsbury or MK Dons will be celebrating promotion to League One……..in 7 days City fans will know if they have made their 3rd playoff final in 5 years…..I hope everyone’s got long finger-nails….you’re going to need them.