Sutton off to Buckley-esque start
By theimps.tk
October 12 2009
Chris Sutton's start to life as manager of Lincoln City has made him the first manager since Alan Buckley in 2001 to win his first two games in charge. Wins over Aldershot and Macclesfield have seen Sutton already have a better record at this stage than Alexander, Schofield and Jackson had.
After Phil Stant sent us towards the bottom of the table and almost certain candidates for a trip to the Conference. Stant was sacked after five straight defeats and former Grimsby manager, Alan Buckley, was appointed as the boss. Within a week he had secured City's first away win in 336 days, an exciting 3-2 win at a Mansfield side who were chasing promotion.
A 3-1 win at recently promoted Kidderminster and a 2-0 win over eventually promoted Cardiff City cemented nine points from three points. Unfortunately, losing at home to Port Vale in the LDV Vans Trophy Northern Final First Leg knocked City out of their stride and for a while it seemed like the Imps would be dragged back into danger.
Due to a lot of postponements, City were faced with eight games in three weeks, at one point playing on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. A decent run of form in these fixtures saw the Imps survive.
Keith Alexander's second reign at City could have started very differently. Simon Weaver opened the scoring for Alexander's relegation favourites at Kidderminster in 2002, but the hosts equalised and with the Imps down to 10 men after Dene Cropper got sent off, Alan Marriott was forced to save a late penalty to secure a point.
A 2-0 win over Rochdale raised hopes amongst fans, but this was followed by two defeats. Thankfully though, the season turned around and we all know what heppened after that.
It was a long time before Schofield had his chance to make a great start and although he made officially the best start in the club's history, he didn't quite equal Buckley's opening three wins. An opening day draw with Notts County guaranteed that, even though we did follow that with consecutive two-one wins over Hereford and Torquay respectively.
Then we get onto Peter Jackson and he got off to an awful start, losing his first three League games before eventually getting a win over Notts County.....one day short of three months since the Imps' previous victory.
So Sutton has a great chance to not only equal Buckley, but overtake him. He will equal Buckley's start with a win on Saturday at Northampton, whilst the Imps would hope for a maximum haul against both Torquay and Morecambe, especially as both are struggling.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
As Sutton reminds us.....it is very early days and we are atill not playing great but fair play to the guy he is getting us moving on and off the field.
[www.division4.co.uk] - League 2 Football Blogs
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:10:14:16:42:55 by leedsImp.