MATCH 17 : Birch inspires Barnet comeback


By Nathan Jackson
June 3 2008

Match 17 of the Top 20 countdown of the last 5 years comes in an away game at Barnet. City dominated the game but found themselves 2-0 down before Gary Birch coming on as a substitute gave the Imps the boost they needed to go on and win the game. Little did we know at that point what impact it would have on our season.

2005/6 Logo

Lincoln City are Barnet are two sides who certainly know where the other's goal is. There have been 28 goals in the 6 games between the sides since Barnet returned to the division in 2005, 19 of those being scored by the Imps.

The meeting at Underhill in 2005/6 came exactly a month after the meeting at Sincil Bank and City were all of a sudden starting to mount a playoff push. City had mainly been involved in the relegation battle up until this point in the season but we were in the middle of a run that would eventually see us reach the Playoffs. Infact, City travelled to Barnet still unbeaten in 2006 and having only been beaten once since a 4-1 thrashing at Cheltenham in mid November 2005.

Barnet started the game against the Imps and immediately went on the attack, however it took until the 3rd minute until they won the game’s first corner. However, the long high ball into the box was easily dealt with by the Imps defence but it was fair from a confident start by an Imps side who were shooting up the famous Barnet slope. 

City had the game's first decent chance when Colin Cryan proved calm when under pressure from Strevens before playing a ball to Gritton. He flicked the ball through to Yeo. The striker rather unsurprisingly hit his shot straight at Flitney, one of the worst goalkeepers to grace League 2 in recent past. It says it all about a goalkeeper who goes to Old Trafford, catches the ball 2/3 yards outside the box and can't understand why a free kick has been given.

 

Just minutes later Yeo put Gritton through and the former Grimsby man had a simple 1 on 1 with Flitney. Gritton had scored in his debut at Stockport just 10 days earlier but couldn't repeat that trick as he also hit straight at Flitney.

 

After an early City dominance, Barnet took the lead with one of their first chances on goal. Grazioli broke free of City’s defence but the former Bristol Rovers man saw his shot parried by Marriott into the path of Strevens and he tapped into the empty net.

 There was a big of nostalgia back to the 2002/3 season when Yeo missed an open goal from 6 yards out. Gritton played Green through but the shot was parried by Flitney and fell to Yeo whose shot went well wide despite having his easiest chance since returning to the Imps. 

City were still controlling most of the action and almost equalised just before half time when Gritton's headed was saved by a recovering Flitney. Nicky Bailey almost lobbed Marriott from 40 yards but the goalkeeper got the slightest touch on it to force it over. 

 City kicked off the second half and almost immediately gave the ball to Barnet and only a last ditch Colin Cryan tackle prevented Strevens from putting City further behind. Yeo fell over and the Imps were awarded a free kick. Steve Robinson stepped up but Flitney was able to just watch the ball curl around the post. A midfield battle then saw Barnet scored again when another hoof found Tresor Kandol and the former Darlington man lobbed over Marriott to make it 2-0 to the home side. However, the ironic thing about Kandol scoring is that he played and scored in their recent home game against Darlington in which the visiting side came back from 2 goals down to get something. It took less than 2 minutes for the Imps to respond. After yet another pathetic corner, the ball found it’s way back out to Scott Kerr. The midfielder sent in a deep cross that swerved wickedly in the air and Flitney couldn’t collect comfortably and fumbled the ball into the line of Jamie McCombe, the defender scored his first goal since the home win over Barnet exactly a month before. Game on. Grazioli almost made it 3 goals in 3 league appearances against City when he broke through of the Imps defence, however, he could only hit his shot over the bar. Gary Birch then replaced Martin Gritton and just like in the previous few weeks, Birch’s introduction changed the game in City’s favour. The ball found it’s way to Flitney following a broken down attack, but his clearance went straight to Birch and the striker ran towards goal and produced a fine finish from the edge of the box to get into double figures for the first time in his career. It sent the 400 visiting supporters into delirium as it was the first time in the league that the Imps had come from 2 goals down since the game against Northampton at Sincil Bank the previous season, a game that the Imps won 3-2. The game slowed down again and Barnet’s negative tactics had cost them and the confidence was clearly gone from the Bees. They were still creating a few openings for themselves but none of them troubled the Imps goalkeeper, Alan Marriott. 

City won a free kick about 25 yards out when Barry Fuller fouled Kerr. Nat Brown stepped up and smashed the ball goalwards and it was deflected wide (apparently) and City had a corner. Whilst we’re on the subject of corners, where the hell did we get this reputation that we’re dangerous from set pieces? Obviously the people who have given up this tag haven’t bothered watching any of our set pieces under Keith Alexander in his last season.

 

Yeo wasted yet another opportunity when Kerr’s free kick found it’s way to him, firing wide from just a few yards out. Kandol was booked for the hosts before both sides made changes as Frecklington replaced Robinson for the visitors.

 It looked as thought the game was going to go on to be a draw, however, whenever Nat Brown was near a ball that is 25 yards out at the time, you knew that something is going to happen. After a weak clearance by a Barnet defender, the  fell to the feet of the former Huddersfield man and Brown produced another clinical finish as he drove the shot past Flitney and into the bottom corner. However, added on time was far from a run in the past as Dwane Lee swung in a free kick and after a few seconds, the ball was cleared and the Imps held on for a rather unexpected victory.

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MATCH 17 : Birch inspires Barnet comeback
Discussion started by theimps.tk (IP Logged), 03/06/2008 23:38
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03/06/2008 23:38
MATCH 17 : Birch inspires Barnet comeback

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