Keith "Red card proved to be turning point"

By Nathan Jackson
March 26 2005

Keith Alexander has said that the sending off of Rushden's Drewe Broughton was the turning point in Lincoln's 4-1 at Nene Park last night. The striker was sent off with the scores at 1-1 and within 10 minutes, Lincoln were out of sight.

City's display might not have been the best all season but Rushden's lack of doing anything with the ball would prove their downfall. Broughton was sent off in the 73rd minute, 10 minutes later, goals from Ben Futcher, Jamie McCombe and Gary Taylor-Fletcher saw City come out with a 4-1 victory which could have been more emphatic if Yeo hadn't scuffed his 1 on 1 just after GTF's goal.

"Drewe Broughton was sent off and, I have to be honest and say, that changed the game," Alexander told the Echo, "I clearly saw the incident from where I was - he kicked out at McAuley and had to go. The referee's assistant was looking straight at it, flagged immediately and there was no other option. It was absolutely blatant and it's not the first time Broughton has done something like that."

The Imps boss also revealed it was heartening to see his side cope with having a numerical advantage for the last 17 minutes. At times in the past couple of seasons we've struggled in games where we've had the extra man, but last night we made it count," said Alexander. With Rushden down to 10 men we put Jamie up front and he scored an excellent goal."

It has been a good week for McCombe who signed a new contract on Wednesday and sealed it with a good goal last night to realistically put the Imps out of sight at 3-1.

"It's been an excellent week for him after signing a new two-year contract and I'm very happy for the lad.

"Rushden were a very good side when they came and beat us 3-1 at home back in August. And for 45 minutes I thought they were equally as good last night. I've been telling the lads that Rushden were a much better side than their league position suggested and I think this is a great three points."

"I wasn't happy to concede at such an early stage, I wanted to try and stop them getting crosses in but, in all honesty, I was never too concerned because we have three big lads at the back, plus keeper Alan Marriott to deal with them. We defended well and you couldn't pick a poor player in our side. We played some excellent stuff towards the end and I'm highly delighted our goal difference has been improved because it might be important at the end of the season. In the end it was a comfortable win, but certainly in the first half they made us battle all the way.