A Complete Lack of Suprise : Part 2 - February

By Nathan Jackson
December 24 2005

February was a memorably month for the wrong reason as it saw 2 players effectively sacked after off the field problems. February also saw Simon Yeo continue his impressive scoring run in front of goal. City also beat Boston in this month and that was one of 3 wins as well as 2 defeats and 1 draw

Don't you just love irony? January had been a fairly above-average start to the year and Ciaran Toner had broken into the side after disappearing for 5 months since signing and he was turning into a great player and even issued a statement saying how he was loving his time at the club, and wanted to stake a claim as a regular first team player. The first piece of real news to come out of Sincil Bank in February was Craig Westcarr's return to Forest after a less than convincing loan spell.

 

The first match of the Valentine Month was a home game against Oxford. When the teams had met in October, City had dominated for 90 minutes, 4 goals disallowed, 2 cross bars struck, 3 cleared off the line and we came back with a 1-0 win. Oxford however, had been in recent good form and had gone on undefeated since a surprise 2-0 defeat at home to Kidderminster. Ramon Diaz, the manager at the Kassam Stadium had won the manager of the month and was soon finding out why it's regarded as a curse as City won a penalty half way through the first half when Yeo was "fouled", Yeo stepped up and converted the penalty. Gary Taylor-Fletcher then opened his account for the calender year when he danced around a few Oxford defenders and slammed a shot past Turley. Yeo completed his brace in added on time with a shot from less than a yard out.

 

Now, just incase you don't know what the irony about Ciaran Toner's quote, it was that within a week, himself and striker, Marcus Richardson had guaranteed themselves a one-way ticket out of Sincil Bank when a training ground argument turned into a racist argument which inevitably turned into violence and several squad member's vehicles were left damaged by Richardson slamming Toner's face into assistant manager, Gary Simpson's car. The club released a statement a few days earlier stating that two un-named players were indefinatly suspended, however, everyone knew that it was Richardson and Toner and the face both weren't present for the weekend trip to Rochdale, just confirmed that it was them. Karl Bermingham and Guy Ipoua were brought in on loan.

 

The game against Rochdale will definatly be a forgetable one for the Imps. City had won the previous two encounters at Spotland, 1-0 and 3-0 respectively, however, within 5 minutes, Rochdale had the advantage after Grant Holt pounced on a rebound. However, midway through the half and Gareth McAuley smashed a shot goalwards and Ernie Cooksey did a magnificant save on the line, Gary Taylor-Fletcher did put the ball in the net but the referee had already blown for a penalty and he then sent Cooksey off. Yeo stepped up for the penalty and smashed it straight down the middle. However, just before the hour mark, it was 2-1 to the hosts after an Alan Marriott mistake allowed Greg Heald to sneak in behind. Gareth McAuley hit the bar for City but the hosts made it 3-1 when Alan Goodall tapped into an empty net.

 

In the following week, City made the 34 mile trip to Boston for the game rearranged from boxing day. It was a slow start to the game, although Boston striker, Andy Kirk struck the bar after 8 minutes. City started to control the game and after half an hour, Ritchie Hanlon won the ball 30 yards out, assessed his options and then sent in a beauty dipping shot and made it 1-0 to City. The goal clearly sunk Boston who automatically started to play like their non-league neighbours, Boston Town and when Yeo found space on the left just after the hour mark, there was only going to be 1 result and Yeo smashed the ball past Abbey to make it 2-0 to City.

 

Despite Keith's promise not to do Richardson or Toner any favours, Keith sent Richardson out on loan to Rochdale. City's next home game saw an "on-paper" easy game against rock bottom Cambridge who had not only had financial problems, but had only won 3 of their opening 30 or so games. However, Cambridge were impressive and made life difficult for the Imps. Yeo opened the scoring when a Richard Butcher cross arrived as Yeo's feet 6 yards out before Taylor-Fletcher doubled the lead from a similar distance. Ex-Imp Danny Webb did pull one back for the visitors in the 2nd half but failed to score a second in a season that would inevitably see them relegated.

 

 

Keith confirmed that he was interested in signing Boston defender Lee Beevers and the deal was finalised during the week. City made a midweek trip to Leyton Orient and for a long-time, it looked as through the game would be called off after floodflight failure in all but 2 floodlights caused the referee to consider the players safety. Surely if the Lincoln fans could see from one end of the pitch to the other from a fair distance away, then surely the players could have. When the game did eventually kick off, Simon Yeo wasted no time as Butcher played the ball forward and Yeo hit the ball first time from the edge of the area and it dipped into the net. As full time scores were coming in from the other games, City knew that a win would take them 3rd and Paul Morgan even made a forward run for only the 4th time in his career. With 6 minutes to go, John Mackie was give the freedom of the City box and no City players even tried to clear the ball and it become 1-1 and instead of the Imps moving up 2 places to 3rd, City moved down 1 place to 6th.

 

On the pitch, City ended the month with a disappointing 1-0 defeat at Cheltenham, which also saw Simon Yeo's run of 7 goals in 7 games come to an end. City had a goal disallowed just after the hour mark before Steve Guinan shot into the net from close range. City ended the month laying 6th in the table and a gap was starting to grow to 8th place.