By Nathan Jackson
December 24 2006

April saw the Imps lose just once and all but secure a playoff place with 2 impressive away wins at Wycombe and Shrewsbury. It was another busy month off of the pitch with several sponsors coming and leaving, the ladies win a trophy and Alan Marriott goes and hits a bar from 50 yards.

City started the month with a trip to Darlington and ended the day looking like April Fools. After a quiet first half, Darlington took the lead early on in the second half as Guy Bates sent a faint header past Marriott to give Darlington their first ever goal over Lincoln at the stadium that they rename every season. The lead didn’t last long though as Marvin Robinson also headed in from a cross. He thought he’d put the Imps in the lead within a few minutes as he slotted past the home goalkeeper, only to see it ruled out for offside.

Darlington went down the other end and Marriott reacted too late to the ball coming into the box and Matt Clarke had the easy task of heading the ball just past him. Darlington exploded further ahead a few minutes later when Jemal Johnson ran down the left and sent an unstoppable shot across goal and into the net to give Darlington a 3-1 lead. With less than 20 minutes left, he made it 4 with a good finish past Marriott again. Jamie Forrester pulled one back from a neat angle but it ended 4-2 to Darlington. It would also be the final game of Luke Foster’s season as he went off injured.

Scott Loach was offered a trial at Championship promotion chasers, Watford, he was soon offered a deal and agreed to join then, getting the Imps around £50,000. Matt Bloomer also extended his loan at Cambridge as he was told that he was guaranteed a contract there if the Imps released him a possibility that seemed destined to happen.

Next up was struggling Mansfield and it was a game that City controlled and then we took a deserved lead in the second half when Francis Green’s shot was fumbled into the net by Kevin Pressman. It looked as though City would secure a first win in 4, but in the final minute, Lee Beevers "fouled" a Mansfield player on the edge of the area. Russell stepped up and set the ball around the wall and into the net. City had a chance to win it within a minute of the equaliser as Jamie Forrester attempted to chip Pressman but the rotund keeper managed to pull of an unbelievable save to keep the score at 1-1.

In the week that follows, Jeff Hughes is called up for a Northern Ireland Under 21 match against Liechtenstein and although they comfortably win, Hughes scored an own goal in a 4-1 victory. Danny Bacon signs a new 1 year contract for the Imps and Matt Bloomer is recalled just a few days after extended his loan at Cambridge. Former Imp, Jack Hobbs, also represented Liverpool as they win the Youth FA Cup with a win over Manchester City. John Schofield also signs a new 2 year contract as First Team Coach and Head of Youth Development.

City attempt Soccer AM’s Crossbar challenge. Jamie McCombe, Luke Foster, Lee Beevers, Martin Gritton, Francis Green, Nat Brown and John Schofield all fail in their attempts but Alan Marriott manages to hit the bar and he wins a lovely blue t-shirt for his trouble, as well as being gagged by his team-mates.

Next up is a tricky home game against Bury. City had dominated the game at Gigg Lane and should have won by 4 or 5 goals but were consigned to a 1-1 draw after Bury equalised in the 90^th minute with their only shot on goal in the entire game.

The match is a frustrating one for the Imps as we can’t make our control of the game count as several chances go begging and rather unsurprisingly, Bury scored with their first shot on goal in the 37^th minute. It is far from a good performance from the Imps but there was only one team who seemed interested in scoring in the second half and the Imps finally did when Lee Frecklington scored his first professional goal at Sincil Bank with an impressive strike. Gritton almost won it for the Imps but his injury time header was cleared off the line by a defender. The game also marked Alan Marriott’s 300^th appearance for the Imps.

The Imps have to wait just 2 days until the next game and it is a trip to Wycombe, a team City hadn’t beaten in a long time. The first half was a tense affair, with both sides creating some good chances with Imps arguably having the best with a shot cleared off of the line from Jamie Forrester. The second half continues in the same method and that also starts quite slowly but after Jeff Hughes smartly beats Wycombe’s right back and sends in a cross to Jamie Forrester, the striker shoots and it deflects past Talia in the Wycombe goal.

The goal clearly demoralises Wycombe and City made it 2-0 minutes later when Nat Brown cleverly beats a few Wycombe defenders before laying the ball of to Francis Green, he in turn produces a smart finish to beat Talia from the edge of the area. It became 3-0 just before half time when Jamie Forrester broke free and sent a lovely curled shot around the keeper to give the Imps an excellent win that left them with a great chance of a playoff game with just 3 games left.

The following few days see the Imps announce that the sponsorships with 3 companies has ended. The Contracting Solutions Group, Sports TV and Castlemaine Accountancy, all announce that they will no long sponsor the Imps. However, the Imps do strike a new deal with Kingston Communications that will last for 3 years.

Throughout the previous few weeks, I’d be trying to think of the quiest goal I’d ever seen against us and that quickly changed in the match against promotion chasing Leyton Orient. From a corner, Jon Mackie scored a header as he bulldozed through several Imps players to connect with the ball. City seem to have luck as the referee gives everything in the favour of the Imps and there was a foul in the build up to Jamie Forrester equalising. Francis Green was climbing all over Mackie before winning a header then went back to Forrester, he controlled the ball and sent it over the goalkeeper for a lovely chipped shot.

The game after that turned out to be quite entertaining with both sides wasting some excellent chances to take the lead but neither manage it. The draw means that City have the difficult task of needing 4 points from the final 2 games, and then hoping goal-difference stays in their favour, to secure a playoff spot that had seemed unlikely up until that point.

Want-away defender, Gareth McAuley, is named in the PFA League 2 Team of the Year. He is the first Imp to do so under Keith Alexander and he is named along with Joe Hart (Shrews), Danny Senda and Roger Johnson (Wycombe), Matt Lockwood (Orient), Kevin Betsy (Wycombe), Josh Low (Northampton), Mark Jones (Wrexham), Ian Taylor (Northampton), Karl Hawley (Carlisle) and Michael Reddy (Grimsby).

City announce that a friendlies with Nottingham Forest and Leicester will be played in the summer. Jeff Hughes is called up for another match against Liechtenstein for the Under 21s and Jamie Forrester agrees to join permanently in the summer from Bristol Rovers. The Imps ladies win the Lincolnshire Senior Cup with a 5-0 win over Grimsby. It is announced that Jackson Building Centres and Chestnut Homes have both agreed to new commercial deals with the Imps.

City’s final away game of the regular season is a tough trip to Shrewsbury, a team who need to beat the Imps to maintain their own hopes of a playoff place. Shrewsbury absolutely dominate the Imps before Gareth McAuley scores a goal midway though the second half with one of City’s few shots on goal to give the Imps a 1-0 win that means that City needed just a point from their final game, a home game against Rochdale.