2004 : Part 2 : So near yet so far

By Nathan Jackson
December 25 2004

In the final three months of the season, the Imps came so close to getting another trip to Cardiff. An impressive period saw the Imps go unbeaten for 10 games before 3 defeats in the final 4 games of the season, including the playoffs condemmed City to another season in the basement division.

So we'd got to March and City were in a good position and set to make a final assault on the playoff places and possibly, even the automatic places. March started well when Marcus Richardson put the Imps 1-0 up at Cheltenham after only 2 or 3 minutes, Grant McCann's spectacular free kick levelled things up before Richardson re-gave the Imps the lead thanks to a penalty on the stroke of half time. Cheltenham dominated the second half but it looked as though the Imps had held out until an 87th minute corner found it's way to former Imp John Finningan who shot through the field of players and made it 2-2. However, City were still to lose as an injury time Odejayi header gave the Robins a 3-2 victory over the Imps.

Stockport's Kevin Ellison (loan) and Scunthorpe's Jamie McCombe were signed up after months of speculation and he made his debut in the home game against Mansfield. City were dominant in the game and the first half was going City's way, thanks to dodgy keeping from former Man Utd keeper, Kevin Pilkington and a goal disallowed from Isyden Christie. However, City's luck ran out just before half time when Liam Lawrence ran into the box and behind Fletch before theatrically falling over, which might I add, happened every week. Lawrence himself stepped up and put the spot kick away.

City came out for the second half with renewed vigor and after a scamble in the box, a mistake from Eaton allowed Fletcher to smash the ball into the net. It became pretty even for a while before Fletcher went on one of those runs and scored from 25 yards out. Within 2 minutes, Paul Morgan lifted the ball over everyone and Francis Green neatly lofted the ball over the onrushing Pilkington. McCombe then almost scored on his debut when an acrobatic shot hit the bar. Simon Yeo completed the scoring when he also lofted the ball over Pilkington from the edge of the area.

Now you'd think that City would have confidence at home after 2 good wins against fellow promotion rivals but then came Southend. The Shrimps had been struggling for most of the season and lost to the Imps 2-0 earlier in the season but then the Shrimps got their revenge in the FA Cup when they beat the Imps 3-0 which definatly flattered the hosts.

A first half brace from Leon Constantine looked to have doomed City. However, in the second half, Francis Green scored with a pratically on the line volley. Futcher then powered a header towards goal and it cross the line and even hit the back of the net but play continued because neither the ref of linesman managed to see the fact it had travelled 3 FUCKING FEET beyond the goal line. City looked doomed until Yeo came up again in the 4th minute of injury time to give the Imps a 2-2 draw.

Now, when a player goes to their former club, they are more than usually up for it. To say that Fletch provided inspiration on his return to Leyton Orient and put the Imps ahead after only 3 minutes when he latched onto Francis Green's header and rounded the keeper before slotting in from a very narrow angle. Kevin Ellison nearly gave the Imps a 2-0 lead on a very very windy day for the whole country. Ellison smashed the ball from inside his own half and the wind carried it and it grazed the outside of the post. That would have been a goal everyone would have talked about for years but unfortunatly it wasn't, but then came one that will be. After a bit of a scramble in midfield, Fletch picked up the ball an ran all the way to the Orient box skipping through at least 6 players on the way but hitting the ball past the Orient keeper. Fletch was substituted almost immediatly afterwards to a standing ovation from all sides of Brisbane Road.

City were now in full swing and if this continued, the Imps would easily finish in the playoffs and looked to have a good chance of the last automatic promotion spot. Kidderminster were the next visitors to the Bank and City were heavy favourites to win against the Harriers but it wasn't going according to plan when Simon Brown gave Harriers the lead after only 2 minutes of the second half. However, City got the great escape when Richardson popped up in the very last minute to give the Imps a point they definatly didn't deserve.

Kevin Ellison's loan deal was extended until the end of the season but the next game saw the Imps put in a very tepid display at Macclesfield in a very uneventful 0-0 draw.

The Imps made a similar trip west only a few days later to the home of Rochdale. Futcher had a headed goal disallowed in the first half but other than that moment, Rochdale had been relatively on top. However, the second half just showed how dangerous City can be on the road.

A Mark Bailey cross was headed down by Ellison which went past the keeper and Fletch decided to make sure and give the Imps a 1-0 lead. Yeo was introduced 10 minutes later and within 2 minutes, his thunderbolt shot from the edge of the area put the Imps 2-0 up and 43 seconds later, Yeo got through the defence and it was 3 on 1 against the keeper, he managed to thwart Yeo but the ball fell to Fletcher who quite literally couldn't miss and the Imps were 3-0 up. It could have been 4 within another 40 seconds but Sedge's effort went just wide.

The DVD club came to town in the form of Swansea City and the overrated pie eater himself, Lee Trundle, I'm actually going to take a minute out of talking about City to just moan about how overrated he is. He doesn't do anything in matches, granted his occasionally scores a good goal but I've seen him play us 6 times for various clubs and not once have I been impressed yet you get all these Sky Sports "Experts" saying he could play in the Premiership, little tip, ACTUALLY GO AND WATCH THE GAMES. I've got nothing against Trundle personally but I definatly don't think he's above League 1 standard.

Anyway, City absolutly dominated the game and should have at least been 5-0 up at half time, it was that one sided but as usual in these situations, Swansea had one chance and scored it when a Swansea defender scored from 5 yards out. City deserved to get something out the game and Peter Gain brought the Imps level before a late Yeo header gave the Imps the win that was definatly deserved.

A massive game came against fellow promotion hopefuls, Northampton Town. The Cobblers had made a slow climb up the table since Calderwood came along but over the course of the season, didn't deserve the playoff place they eventually claimed. It was a fairly even game at Sixfields before Paul Trollope put Northampton 1-0 just before half time with an unstoppable volley. Northampton controlled the second half but couldn't create any real chances until Derek Asamoah had a shot hit the bar, Marriott dived for it and was on the ground when Asamoah hit a rebound shot but Marriott spectaculary got up in time and forced a corner. That would be the turning point of the game and within 5 minutes, a Kevin Ellison shot was tapped in by Simon Yeo which came as a suprise. City then had a great chance to win the game just seconds later when a definsive mistake let in Fletcher, his shot was seeming destined to go in and you could hear the gasp from Northampton fans but the shot went agonisingly wide of the goal but overall, a draw was a good result.

A home game with Darlington ended this two month spell of the season and Francis Green's tap in equalised from a scramble after Darlo took a suprise first half lead. This draw good news for City as the Imps now had a commanding position in the table, sitting in 6th place, the Imps were 5 points ahead of 8th placed Northampton with Yeovil sandwiched in between. It was to become an interesting situation after the following weekend's results.

The Imps travelled down to Bristol Rovers and a very very unconvincing display from the Imps saw Paul Tait (2) and Lee Thorpe give the Priates a 3-1 win with Richardson's goal getting a consolation for City. The only good thing to come out of this game was that City could lose the following week and still make the playoffs as long as the Imps didn't get beat by 5 goals.

It was a nervous last day with the Imps effectively in the playoffs and Mansfield already there, yet both could help decide who out of Yeovil and Northampton joined them. Mansfield were at home to Northampton whereas the Imps played hosts to the ever impressive Glovers. Basically, it worked like this. If Northampton won, they were in the playoffs regardless, however, if they didn't, they would have to hope the Imps could stop Yeovil from winning.

After a slow first half at a packed Sincil Bank, the half time scoreline was 0-0 but it was bad news for Yeovil as Northampton were beating Mansfield. This also meant the cobblers were above the Imps in the table. In the second half, news filtered through that Mansfield had equalised which brought a massive session of cheering from the impressive following that had come up. Yeovil's joy got even better just minutes later when a defensive mistake left Kevin Gall with an open goal to give them a 1-0 lead and now it was Yeovil going into the playoffs instead of Northampton. It got even better minutes later when after another scramble, Rodreiguez smashed the ball against the bar but it hit Bailey's back and went into the goal. However, the Yeovil fans wouldn't be singing for long, news filtered through that Northampton had once again taken the lead against Mansfield so Yeovil now had to score another 3 and keep the Imps out of absolutly guarantee a playoff place.

However, keeping City out is something that a lot of teams had found difficult during the season and it was emphasised minutes later when Wilford headed in front the edge of the area. Just minutes later, the ball fell to Yeo just outside the 6 yard area and he smashed it in to make it 2-2 and scorelines were looking to set the Imps up with another local derby in the playoffs against Mansfield. However, a last minute free kick gave Yeovil a 3-2 victory. So City were in the playoffs but you could tell by the look on the Yeovil fan's faces that they were gone. However, the mutual respect between the fans resulted in a mass of Imps fans walking over to the Yeovil fans and giving them a massive round of applause which was returned. Now to find out who City had been pitted against in the playoffs. We knew that with Northampton winning that we finished in 7th so it was either Torquay or Huddersfield, neither looked favourable, especially seeing as we'd be going to Torquay on a Wednesday night, however, it was announced that the Imps had Huddersfield and the chance for revenge was at hand.

So the second playoff campaign in a row kicked off but definatly didn't go City's way when Iffy Onoura (sorry about spelling) headed in a Rob Edwards header with only 5 minutes gone. Most Imps fans weren't fussed about this because the Terriers had also taken the lead at Sincil Bank earlier in the season before the Imps won 3-1. It looked to be happening again in the second half as Futcher's shot hit the post and ran across the line and left Fletch with a tap in. City were rampant and started running all over Huddersfield but a freak goal saw the Terriers take a win back to the McAlpine. A free kick was whipped in and it went towards the ball post, Bailey cleared the ball off the line but the ball hit David Mirfin and snook into the back of the net. Jammy gits.

So it was now a case of City quite literally, having to win, nothing else would do for the Imps, anything less and the Imps were out. Although it was a very heated start to the game, it calmed down a bit until the 36th minute when a Bloomer throw in found it's way to Bailey who pumped the ball in. Rachubka went for the ball but jumped on top of Sodje and fell over leaving Butcher to dink the ball into the net. Game on. Now, if City fans thought that was good, they went fucking mental 66 seconds later. Another throw in saw the ball passed by Marcus Richardson for a through ball for Bailey who smashed the ball past Rachubka. So in the space of just over a minute, the Imps went from going out, to going to Cardiff. It provoked mass celebrations between players, officials and fans, even Alan Marriott ran 70 yards to join in. This was following a trend of the playoffs because in all 6 playoff ties across the 3 divisions, the team that was losing at some point had come from behind to take the lead.The icing on the cake would have been just minutes later when Yeo got through 1 on 1 with Rachubka but the former Man Utd keeper pulled off a save and the ball trickled just beyond the post.

The sound of 17,000 Huddersfield fans booing when the half time whistle was one of the best things I've ever heard. City began the second half in a similar fashion and a Marcus Richardson header flashed over the bar. Then came a controversial moment. A ball was floated up but looked to be beyond Booth. McCombe then appeared to trip Booth even though he wouldn't have got to the ball in time. The ref was going to give the penalty but then followed the advice of the linesman. Danny Schofield stepped up and made it 2-1 on the night and 3-3 on aggregate. This rejuvenated Huddersfield who weren't even in the stadium, let alone the game until the penalty. It looked to be heading for extra time until Rob Edwards volleyed in from the edge of the area with 5 minutes left. Yeo could have still pulled it level in injury time though but his shot from 3 yards out hit Rachubka's arse and went just past the post and City were out of the playoffs. The fans stayed behind and gave a round of applause to both sets of players and Mark Bailey looked to be in tears when he was applauding the fans. This would be the last time we'd see the popular defender in a City shirt and now it was summer, Keith promised better players than what we already had, but would we get them?