By Nathan Jackson
June 16 2008

Lincoln City produced yet another fine performance against Mansfield Town to give the Stags yet another mauling. Jamie Forrester was City's main man during the afternoon as he scored his first, second, third and fourth goals for City since joining permanently from Bristol Rovers.

The Imps were unbeaten in the League heading to Mansfield, but we were coming off a 4-3 defeat at Scunthorpe United. City played 120 minutes at Glanford Park and not a single substitute was used that night, a decision which drew Schofield's first criticism in charge of the Imps. Mansfield weren't having the best of times and it was little surprise that they battled relegation for most of the season.

Mansfield kicked off the game but it was 5 minutes in before something interesting happened. Kerr won the Imps a corner and Hughes surprisingly managed to get it over the first defender, but it couldn’t find it’s way into the net as the Stags defence cleared well under pressure. Prolific Mansfield striker, Richard Barker came close to scoring but Marriott produced a fine stop to keep the scores level. City apparantly agreed a fee with Mansfield for the striker later on in the season, but the Imps couldn't match his wage demands and he went to Hartlepool in stead.

The game calmed down again but Scott Kerr received a yellow card, one of the very few Imps have received so far this season. 2 minutes later and City had a chance to gain the lead when Lee Frecklington burst into the box before being brought down by Alex John-Baptiste. Forrester and Mayo argued as to who would take the penalty and all the other players seemed to plead with Mayo to let Forrester take it and the defender reluctantly gave the ball to the striker. Mayo had recently failed to score from the spot for the first time in his City career at Torquay. Forrester struck hard to Carl Muggleton’s left and it was 1-0 to the Imps and to be fair, it came as a surprise after a game that had been restricted to the central third of the pitch.

Simon Brown, who scored his first ever professional goal against the Imps for Kidderminster Harriers in 2003/4, sent a 25 yard shot towards goal but it was easy for Marriott to save the ball. City then hit Mansfield on a great counter attack when Amoo broke down the right before crossing to Forrester. The striker seemed set to volley in with his left foot but instead controlled with his right, played with his back to goal and unleashed an unstoppable curling effort that went in at the back post to give him a brace within 20 minutes of the game’s start.

Amoo was again the creator 10 minutes later when he burst into the box and chipped the ball towards the far post, Forrester’s header was saved by Muggleton but the ball fell to him again and he had an easy tap in to score his first hatrick for the Imps and there was only half an hour gone. It was almost 4 less than a minute later when Frecklington sent the ball wide from 25 yards after mixing well with Stallard.

Mansfield came into the Imps’ half for seemingly the first time since the Imps’ scoring spree started and won a free kick for their troubles, it was however easily saved by Marriott. A few minutes later and Beevers upended Brown in the area. Barker stepped up and hit his penalty well, but it was easily saved by Marriott who also collected the rebound well. It was the first time Marriott had saved a spot kick since November 2003. That was the final incident of the first half.

Within minutes of the restart and City had a second penalty when Mayo ran onto a ball by Forrester and John Mullins tried to tackle him. There appeared to be minimal contact and Mayo appeared to dive as much as your average Arsenal player when getting near the bo and ended up getting the game’s 3^rd penalty. He again argued with Forrester as to who would take it and after a while of arguing, Forrester took the ball and smashed it straight down the middle of the goal and into the net to make it 4-0 and with 40 minutes left to play, the ground virtually emptied of all home fans.

Paul Morgan’s defending denied Brown a chance on goal and City easily cleared Mansfield’s corner. Hamshaw was replaced by Reet just after the hour mark. Marriott saved well from Brown but with just over 20 minutes left, Mansfield did get one back when Danny Reet tapped home following a scramble and despite appearing to be in an offside position, the goal was allowed to stand.

After Mansfield had wasted a free kick, Stallard and John-Baptiste got into a heated argument which caused several other players to separate them. Both were booked for the argument. A minute later and Boulding’s goal bound header was headed off the line by Paul Morgan. The game slowed down to a very slot rate and the next noteworthy incident came in the mid-80 minute period when first Stallard was replaced by Gritton and then a minute later, Forrester was applauded off by both sets of supporters as he was replaced by Ryan.

Heading towards full time and Paul Morgan apparently handled the ball in the box and Mansfield were awarded another penalty, the game’s 4^th. Richard Barker did what he couldn’t do in the first half and put his penalty away to make it 4-2 but it couldn’t distract from a great day for the Imps.

City would become the last Football League side to lose a game, being unbeaten until September 16th and only losing three times in the first three months of a season. That run took City to the top of the League. Mansfield would struggle against the drop all season.

MATCH 9 : Imps batter Mansfield.....again

Discussion started by theimps.tk (IP Logged), 16/06/2008 23:32

theimps.tk
16/06/2008 23:32

MATCH 9 : Imps batter Mansfield.....again

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