Lincoln City 2 Gillingham 0

Match 22/08/706 - Tuesday, 28th October 2008 - League Two

Lincoln City (2) 2 Frecklington 11, N'Guessan 14
Gillingham (0) 0
Att. 4,396

Entrance: £17
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 386/3,042

Match Report

Credit where credit is due. On Saturday I bemoaned the lack of quality in this Division, but last night at a freezing Sincil Bank, for 45 minutes at least, we saw a Lincoln City side that showed the necessary class to mount a promotion challenge.

Two goals in the first 14 minutes left Gillingham with a mountain to climb, one, which on the night, they were a long way off getting to even first base. High on confidence that a seven game unbeaten run brings, Lincoln out played their visitors in every department. After a relatively bright start, Gillingham were hit by two goals in four minutes. A cross from the right from Paul Green saw a Lee Frecklington header opening the scoring. My first impression was that Simon Royce had made to come for the cross and stopped, but question marks must also be pointed at the central defenders who failed to make a meaningful challenge.

Gillingham found themselves almost out of the game with just another four minutes added to the clock. A move broke down in midfield and a single pass from a Romanian, Adrian Patulea, to a Frenchman, saw Danny N’Guessan racing clear of the Gillingham defence. As he bore down on goal he still had a lot to do, but finished with an unstoppable drive into the top left.

Secure in their lead, Lincoln started to stroke the ball about with a cockiness that can only be bought with confidence. One sublime piece of skill, unfortunately I’ve no idea which Lincoln player produced it, was worthy of Soccer AM’s showboating section and once he had bought the space, Lincoln then embarked on a passing piece of about 20 or so, that had their home fans giving it the big ole. Only twenty minutes gone and they were taking the piss.

Gillingham were being thoroughly dominated in midfield and a front three of Mulligan, McCammon and Barcham were getting no joy from a solid Lincoln back line that included two outstanding central defenders in Kovacs and Hone. As the odd Gillingham attack broke down the visitors were getting caught on the break as Lincoln responded with pacy counter-attacks. Several opportunities were passed up as we prayed that our favourites could at least get to the break no worse off.

Thankfully, Lincoln failed to reproduce their first half form in the second and we had more of an even contest. Albert Jarrett came on for the injured, but ineffective McCammon, and once again produced a little cameo from the bench. There was a misguided feeling that should we get a goal back we could exert some panic in the closing minutes but by the time the final whistle sounded our shots on target count totalled precisely none.

When it comes to giving credit, lets give our travelling support some. Despite a poor weather forecast (snow was falling heavily not too many miles west) and that depressingly poor away record over a long period of time, 322 turned out. Initially shoe-horned into a small block the Lincoln stewards had to open the section behind to accommodate a far greater number than the 50 to 100 they had be told to expect. They were in good voice prior to the goals but obviously became more subdued and frustrated as the game unfolded.

Sincil Bank is these days all-seated and they have one of those old, full of character grandstands that are sadly being lost in these days of prefabricated ordinariness. Albeit an advertising hoarding, but the arched Lincolnshire Echo sign sets it off. The rest of the stadium is less than inspiring, small box-shaped enclosures behind each goal and whilst the stand that housed the Gillingham support is substantial in size it has the opposite in character to its facing counterpart.

As the temperature dropped to zero, the ride home was at least snow free and we can be thankful for that given the abandonment at Wycome, Luton and Swindon. We can reason that at one point in this match we faced another humiliation and we came out of it with nothing more than having been beaten comfortably. Simeon Jackson is a big loss and the quicker he gets fit the better because no shots on goal can only mean no goals scored. But the performance that Lincoln produced in the first half is the standard we need to attain to mount a meaningful challenge of our own.