A Complete Lack of Surprise : Part 10 : December

By Nathan Jackson
January 3 2006

The final part of the review of 2005 sees the Imps win for once and saw the Imps start to dominate games again, however, just like before, we didn't win a lot of games and sunk to a derby day thumping at Darlington. Also, a health and safety warning, please watch out, the mime artists are coming.

The final month of the year started with City defender, Paul Mayo declaring that the Imps were full of confidence ahead of their head to head clash with Macclesfield Town, the side who City had beaten in the playoffs just a few months earlier. However, the game didn't go as well as Mayo had hoped and City fell behind to a Clive Wijnhard strike during first half injury time with one of the visitor's first chances on target. It appeared as though the Silkmen would go on to win until midway through the second half, when Dean Keates struck a free kick from 25 yards and it hit McAuley's head and went into the net to give the Imps an unexpected leveller and a few minutes later, Nat Brown got the ball in midfield and ran until he was about 30 yards out before producing a beautifully lofted curling chip over Alan Fettis to make it 2-1. However, within a minute it was 1-1 after McAuley failed to clear a Marriott save and it left Teague and easy finish from 3 yards out.

During the following week, Ollie Ryan and Steve Robinson both extended their loan deals at Ilkeston and Worksop, however, within 2 days, Ryan was called back as back up to the first team. Also, the week brought sad news as Imps' legend, Tony Emery died at 78 years old.

After a fairly even first half against Chester, the second half started quickly and Chester quickly had to sub their goalkeeper. The new goalkeeper's first action was to kick the ball to ex-Imp, Marcus Richardson, the striker who spent little over a year as a permanent Imp, didn't waste the chance to show his old employers what they were missing as he broke free of a statuesque defence and slotted past Marriott to make it 1-0 to Chester. Just like the Macclesfield game, it appeared as though this game was well and truly over until just before the 70 minute mark, the ball was floated into the box and out of no-where, Richard Logan volleys in and it's 1-1. Within 40 seconds, Mayo broke into the box and was "fouled" and the referee awarded City's first league penalty since March, Mayo himself picked up the ball and continued his perfect scoring rate from the spot. It appeared destined to finish 2-1 until Derek Asamoah (do not adjust your monitors) broke free of the goalkeeper and scored his second goal in the red and white stripes to make it 3-1 and game over. However, Keates was sent off during this match and both him and Kerr would be suspended against Boston.

Richard Logan extended his loan deal with the Imps and it was a good job that he did because he scored the winner for the Imps with an 80th minute header from a Scott Kerr corner against Oxford. It was a game where the home side shaded the overall control of the game but failed to trouble Marriott at any point. City did hit the bar on several occasions but very rarely looked like scoring until Logan popped up. These remains as City's only back-to-back league wins this season.

The very next day, whilst most other teams in the country were playing out their final games before Christmas, Keith Alexander was lining up a bid to sign Simon Yeo. Yeo had left the Imps after the playoff final defeat and moved to Australia to play for the New Zealand Knights, it was a tough time on and off the field for the 32 year old and rumours had been rife in November that he would make a return and the very next week, it was confirmed that he would return to Sincil Bank in the new year. Marvin Robinson then agreed to a contract extension.

Then came an anti-climax. It was announced on Friday that there would be a MAJOR announcement on Christmas Eve and everyone was speculating about new players or even the signing of Les Ferdinand who had been heavily linked with the Imps. There was someone new coming to Sincil Bank, however, it wasn't a footballer and a lot of football fans were disappointed when it was announced that Westlife would do a concert at Sincil Bank, although fans praised the idea, everyone knew that they would be miming their way to a nice little amount in their pocket.

Then it came, a nice lovely local derby game, against of all people, Boston. It was the first time that Boston had ever been higher in the table than the Imps at this point during a season and the Imps had a seeming advantage with the fact that Boston had to make an emergency 7 day loan to cover a self-made goalkeeping crisis, however, the new keeper, Conrad Logan played extremely well and kept Boston in the game. City were all over their county rivals and it was amazing that they had only lost twice in 17 games. Despite City's general domination, shots on goal were at a premium and the derby ended a disappointing 0-0 draw, the first since Boston were promoted to this division 3 years ago.

Now we come to a game that will stick in my mind for years to come, not only because it was one of the worst City performances in a long time, but because I had to stay at the house of a Grimsby fan after the game and he isn't very subtle to say that least. Anyway, the game had been threatened to be cancelled after heavy snow over the recent days, however, every Imps fans wished it had been called off because City were soon out of the game. Ex-Imp, Ciaran Toner opened the scoring when he hit an unstoppable shot from 12 yards out to give the Mariners an early lead. Michael Reddy made it 2-0 when Marriott failed to hold (making a meal of it at the same time) his shot and Parkinson completed the scoring with a stunning 35 yard shot.....and it wasn't even half time. City failed to trouble the keeper and the less said about this game, the better.

Then we get to Darlington, a game to give up old habits and start fresh, ironic in a way. For the first 30 minutes, City did what a chip shop employee does to a fish and absolutly battered them. City were easily on top and Keith's experimenting with an on the ground tactic was proving to be fantastic as the Imps created some great openings and finally opened the scoring just before the 20 minute mark when McAuley tapped in the ball at the back post when McCombe headed Kerr's corner towards him. It was 2-0 just a minute later when Robinson tapped in the keeper's (ironically another emergency loan) fumble. However, City soon started taking their foot of the gas and despite Akpo Sodje's sending off, City collasped soon and Darlington scored two quickfire goals from Kendal and Ndumbu-Nsungu to make it 2-2 although this definatly wasn't a comeback, it was a throwaway.

So the year ended in an unsurprising way that completely summed up the year. So what did the year have? 4-1 wins, 3-0 defeats, fights, sackings, an exedus, Keith saying the same stuff week in week out, a 35 yard thunderbolt free kick, a memorable night against a Premiership team, winning front of the Sky cameras twice, losing a playoff final, winning a friendly 7-0, signing players who didn't play, wasted loans, long undefeated runs, long runs with a win, batterings, collaspes, heartache, delight and most of all, a complete lack of surprise, it just wouldn't be Lincoln City without that and hopefully 2006 will be just as dramatic and incident filled as 2005.