However, that was put to the back of people’s minds as fans heard a completely surprising announcement from the club. I personally was stood on the train station in Worksop, waiting for the connecting train to Mansfield when I received a text message saying that Keith Alexander, and his assistant Gary Simpson, had been placed on gardening leave following a meeting at the club and John Schofield had been placed in charge for the game. Neither side could find a goal at Field Mill in a game that which won’t live long in the memory.

As the internal enquiry about Keith and Simpson was going on, the club received some good news when former City legend, Phil Neale received a OBE. It turned out to be a busy few days for the Imps in the transfer market as Gareth McAuley seemed set for a £150,000 move to Crewe Alexander, and the paved for the way for City to make a bid for Jon Parkin of Macclesfield Town. The bid was rejected and although a new bid was promised, McAuley’s move to Crewe collapsed, meaning the money wasn’t available for Parkin and he promptly joined Hull City.

It was announced that Gary Simpson had left the club following the enquiry but Keith Alexander is restored to his position as manager and his first action is to recall Francis Green from his loan at Boston United. He was included at the team that travelled to Wrexham. The game was again very bland and only when Simon Yeo gave the Imps the lead with half an our left, did the game come to life. In the 89^th minute, Ollie Ryan missed a near open goal, Wrexham took the ball up the other end of the pitch and scored with near enough their first shot and that meant a 3^rd draw in a row for the Imps and a 5^th without a win.

The following week was full of people leaving the club. Keith Roe, Ray Trew, and Kevin Cooke all leave the club as directors although Cooke stays as Company Secretary. On the playing side of things, Peter Folkes is released after making a grand total of 0 appearances for the club since joining from Bradford in 2004. Regular first teamer, Derek Asamoah, is shipped out to Chester City on loan after just 2 goals in more than 40 appearances.

Keith’s first home game back since the "gardening leave" was against the only team City hadn’t played up until that point in the season, struggling Barnet. The game started in typical Lincoln fashion with the Imps on top before Grazioli scored against the run of play when McAuley decided to try and appeal for offside rather than intercept the ball as the striker ran forward and slotted the ball home. It seemed like on of those days before Ian Hendon deflected Simon Yeo’s shot into the net, a lucky break for the Imps considering it was going wide and it was all the Imps from that point on. McCombe gave the Imps the lead midway through the second half before Marvin Robinson extended the lead. Scott Kerr completed the scoring when his cross from 45 yards missed everyone and went into the net. It was City’s first win in nearly a month.

The following week was a highly busy one for the Imps as several players joined the club, one left and another revealed he wanted to leave. Fan’s favourite, Dean Keates, had some personal problems and handed in a transfer request to leave the club which the club reluctantly accepted. Molango returned to Brighton after Keith ended his loan half way through. Simon Rayner joined Alfreton on loan and the Imps signed recently released Oxford defender, Jude Stirling. Jeff Hughes also recieved a call up for the Northern Irish Under 21 side.

The second local derby of the season came with a difficult trip to Peterborough, who at the time seemed destined to finish in the playoffs. City controlled the early stages and should have taken the lead several times before ex-Imp, Peter Gain, sent in a shot from roughly 35 yards that sailed well past Marriott. It appeared as though City would leave London Road with nothing and wasted chance after chance before winning a free kick with just over 5 minutes left. Kerr swung the ball it and it found Yeo at the back post who headed past Mark Tyler to give City the point that they had deserved at the very least.

Omari Coleman left the club in the following week and the quiet week was exemplified by the quiet nature of the final game of the month and that was against Bristol Rovers. It wasn’t anywhere near to be a classic but Gary Birch scored the winner for the Imps to show everyone at the club that he was still around after finding himself out of the team for a few weeks.

The month ended with one player leaving the club and another joining. After having his transfer request accepted, no-one came in for Dean Keates and the club agreed to released the man who was signed from Kidderminster in the summer. Later the same day, it was announced he’d signed for Walsall which got a lot of the usual conspiracy theorists going amongst the fans. The signing came in the form of Martin Gritton from Grimsby, the man who had come within 4 minutes of deny City of their first ever playoffs back in 2003.