Double delight

By Nathan Jackson
January 1 2005

The Imps started 2005 like they had 2004, with a home win over Bury thanks to a goal from on loan Craig Westcarr. It was the Imps first double of the season and although not a great performance, it's a start.

Strong winds and heavy rain were controlling how the game was going with the Imps kicking against the wind so you can guess where most of Alan Marriott's kicked were going, yep, straight back to him. I say his full name because the Bury keeper was also called Marriott, Andy Marriott. Butcher escaped an early caution after his hard tackle on Scott, however, the Bury midfielder was booked himself just minutes later for a very rough challenge on Cairan Toner.

City got a corner 10 minutes in when Swailes tackled Green, Toner took it and it was easily cleared away in an all to familiar trend these days.  Scott was then replaced after only 10 minutes play. Bury gained a corner a few minutes later but they emulated City in awasting it. A few Bury corners later also failed to trouble City and the Imps broke away. Good work from Taylor-Fletcher saw him flick the ball into the path of new loan signing, Westcarr who smashed the ball into the net from the edge of the 18 yard area to give City an 24th minute lead

It was a slow game and the Imps luck and distribution was similar to that of Wednesday's poor showing against Grimsby. Swailes conceeded another corner and GTF took it. For once, it actually went to a City player but Butcher could only blast the ball over the bar from close range. Woodthorpe was then cautioned after a rash challenge on Green.

With the half coming to a close, Bury had a great chance to go into the break level when Nugent escaped the Imps defence and ran one on one with Alan. Nugent's shot hit Marriott's leg the remaining few minutes of the half passed without any major incidents.

The Imps kicked off the second half and GTF took the ball straight at the Bury defence running around several players but Dunfield proved a stumbling block when it seemed destined to end in a goal. Minutes later, a Butcher back heel deflected off a Bury defender and out for the corner. Sandwith took it and it beat the first defender for a change but Green couldn't control the ball well enough.

The game was going quite quickly with no major incidents occuring with only half chances dominating the play. Then came probably the biggest suprise of the day, Keith reverted to a 3 MAN MIDFIELD taking off Westcarr for Hanlon.

Then came a mini-controversial moment when Green latched onto a ball over the top and went forward and scored a fairly decent goal but it was ruled out for offside despite there being 2 defenders between him and the goal when he started to attack the ball. Green almost scored properly a minute later when he was one-on-one again but his shot went over.

The final few minutes over the game passed by relatively quitely and the Imps started 2005 the exact way they started 2004, with a home win over Bury.