A Complete Lack of Surprise : Part 3 : March

By Nathan Jackson
December 25 2005

March was quite a good month for the Imps, after a setback against Wycombe, City won 10 points from the next 4 games. Also in March, the Sky cameras paid a visit to Sincil Bank for thehome game against Scunny and whilst one striker was saying goodbye to Lincoln, another was saying hello.

March started dreadfully for the Imps as within 39 minutes of the first game of the month, Nathan Tyson had scored a hatrick for an otherwise rubbish Wycombe team. Sandwith and Yeo pulled goals back but the Imps never looked like equalising and the less said about this game the better. Strangly, the club decided to release a DVD of this game.

During the following week, the Imps made what a few fans reveal as a mistake, Derek Asamoah had fallen out with the management at Mansfield and completed a transfer to the Imps for a nominal fee, believed to be around £10,000 and he made his debut in the away game at Southend. Just like all 3 games against Southend during the season, City dominated the match and made an apparantly world-beating side look very average. However, it did look to be heading to 0-0 before Ben Futcher scored a headed goal in the 87th minute goal. The ball went straight down the other end and a Southend player blatently dived to win a penalty which Freddy Eastwood put away. Gary Taylor-Fletcher also had a goal disallowed in this game.

Whilst Lee Beevers was being called up to the Welsh Under 21s, Lincoln University had come up with a plan to regenerate the Sincil Bank area in plans which could even see the expansion on the Lincolnshire Echo Stand. Ciaran Toner, who had been indefinatly suspended by the club in February, was loaned out to Cambridge United for the rest of the season.

An extremely poor Shrewsbury side made the trip to Sincil Bank that weekend and City took an early lead when Yeo's cross-cum-shot hit the corner of the bar and came out to Green who had a simple header into an open goal. Yeo himself scored a few moments later when a statuesque Shrewsbury defence saw Yeo slam home from 12 yards. Shrewsbury were unsurprisingly rough and caused a bad injury to Simon Yeo which looked to rule him out of the trip to Rushden just 6 days later.

The following week saw many good pieces come out of Sincil Bank. Yeo was ok to play at Nene Park, McCombe extended his contract and Richardson was finally sacked by the club. Chris Cornelly also made a return from a 2 year injury when he ran out in the reserves and was loaned out to Spalding.

The trip to Nene Park had the usual beginning with Rushden taking an 11th minute lead when Billy Sharp scored from the edge of the area. Many City fans were fearing the worst because CIty had lost 4 of the 5 meetings between the 2 clubs, the other being a draw. However, within a few minutes, Yeo had equalised with a thunderbolt. We had to wait until the 30th minute of the second half to see another bit of action at Drewe Brought was sent off for Rushden after stamping on McAuley. Within a minute, a goalmouth scramble saw Gain dink a shot off the ground and Futcher headed in. 3 minutes later and good work from Yeo saw McCombe control the ball from the edge of the area and produce a great finish to make it 3-1 and it was 4-1 just 3 minutes later when Green sent the ball into the box and Taylor-Fletcher chipped over the onrushing keeper. Yeo should have made it 5 but his shot from 6 yards went wide.

The Sky Cameras arrived at Sincil Bank for the home game against Scunny. Nearly 7000 fans (with just over 1000 from Scunny) packed into Sincil Bank and were treated to a fine Imps display. 32 seconds into the game had seen Gary Taylor-Fletcher pump the ball forward before Yeo produced an excellent finish from 20 yards to give the Imps the lead. City controlled most of the game and made it save 10 minutes from the edge when McAuley passed the Green who sent Taylor-Fletcher clear and the striker produced an excellent chip over the goalkeeper to make it 2-0.

After this game, strong rumours came out that Yeo had agreed to join an Australian team but no-one could be sure at the time. City ended March sitting 6th in the table, 4 points clear of 7th but with a difficult run in ahead, could the Imps maintain a push for the playoffs?