Imps getting Parkin fine

By Nathan Jackson
December 9 2004

A brace from Macclesfield striker, Jon Parkin saw the Imps lose 2-1 to the Silkmen. It was the Imps first away defeat in the league since August and only the 2nd in the last 14 games and Saturday's clash with Cheltenham is now a must win game.

The opening minutes were quite uneventful with a series of throw ins, wasted corners and offsides decisions. The first real chance came City's way when GTF had a header saved before Futcher shot and it was tipped out fora a corner. Sandwith sent in the corner but GTF headed it wide.

Macclesfield start to get into the game when Paul Harsley had a long range shot but it was smoothered by Marriott. The ball quickly returned towards City's goal but Mike Sheron sliced his shot well wide of the gaol. Jon Parkin then had the best of the oppurtunities at that point in the game  when from 6 yards out, he headed Potter's header wide when he was unmarked.

Good passing work from City saw Butcher have a shot from well out and it did trouble Wilson who only just managed to save the shot. City had a mass of corners but each one kept having a massively disappointing delivery. Macclesfield were struggling to get any where near City's goal so resorted to long range efforts but neither Sheron and Whitaker managed to trouble Marriott. Richardson then made a good run but his shot 20 yards out went fairly wide.

A slow game saw very few chances come and the half time whistle came without any injury time.

Long range shots continued well into the second half with only Ricky Butcher troubling the Macclesfield keeper. Sheron and Harsley had fairly decent efforts saved but the game was hardly awe-inspiring. A crowd of only 1,733 were at Moss Rose and they weren't exactly entertained with Brazil vs Italy style football.

Every shot now was a long range shot out of desperation as both sides were desperatly trying not to conceed a late goal. Macclesfield had the best chance of the half at that point, a full half hour into the half when the ball was crossed, Marriott parried straight to Whitaker who then shot high and wide from less than 6 yards out.

All of a sudden, the game had turned into an end to end game and Peter Gain came close to scoring when a really good passing move on the edge of the area saw Gainy smash the ball goalwards but it headed straight towards Wilson.

Then came the moment that changed the game. Parkin had a header deflected over for a corner. A ball was punched out by Marriott and after a bit of a scramble, Parkin popped out of nowhere and smashed the ball into the net to make it 1-0 to the Silkmen.

Poor marking 8 minutes later saw Whitaker and Parkin run 2 on 2 at the Imps defence, Sandwith, who was marking Parkin came to help McCombe try and win the ball of Whitaker. Whitaker then passed to the completly unmarked Parkin who ran to the area and whalloped the ball into the goal for 2-0 going into stoppage time and it was surely game over.

Late into stoppage time, City got a corner which Sandwith took, it was met with a header from McCombe which snook into the goal and sent the small handful of remaining City fans into a very subdued celebration.