City through despite unconvincing performance
By Nathan Jackson
November 6 2010
Lincoln City are through to the second round of the FA Cup after beating Nuneaton Town 1-0. The Imps struggled to break down their Blue Square North opponents and it wasn't until the last minute that the Imps got a meaningful shot on target...and it resulted in the winning goal.
A crowd of just over 3,000 saw Nuneaton kick off and they almost opened the scoring within a minute as Nisevic hit an effort just wide of the post. City launched their first attack from the resulting goalkick, only for Carayol to slice his cross into the Stacey West stand. Carayol had a cross claimed by Alcock minutes later but neither side were creating any worthwhile chances.
Hutchinson, who was being booed every time he touched the ball due to comments made during the Northampton game, was booked for a foul on Pierpoint before Nuneaton had claims for a penalty as Moore went down easily in the area, luckily the referee wasn't fooled by the dive and waved play on. The visitors were certainly enjoying plenty of play, but City's defence was holding up and Anyon was kept relatively quiet.
City had their own penalty appeal on the 25 minute mark as Grimes went down when bursting past the Nuneaton defence, but much like the other penalty appeal, it was denied. City's first chance on target followed afterwards as Howell's deflected effort was tipped over by Alcock.
Grimes and Hutchinson both headed over before two very quickfire yellow cards for Keltie. The first was for a late challenge on Adam Walker, and the second was for a tackle on Armson, although Keltie appeared to get plenty on the ball. He was the first City player to see red at Sincil Bank since the last game of last season. The final chance of the half fell to Nuneaton and the Nuneaton fans were on their feet as they thought Dean's effort had gone in, however, it had only hit the side netting, not that that stopped some Nuneaton fans invading the pitch.
City went 4-4-1 in the second half, bringing on Scott Kerr for the ineffective Grimes and it looked as though City had had a roasting at half time as both Howell and Hutchinson headed decent chances wide. Nuneaton gained a free kick that was hit well wide of the target but it was against a slow start to the half.
Carayl hit a six yard effort wide before Simmons came on for Hadland for the visitors. City made their substitution of the game when Hutchinson was replaced by Delroy Facey. Hutchinson left the pitch to huge ironic cheers and a chorus of boos, you get a feeling his applauding of the fans was only given due to the aforementioned incident on Tuesday.
Howell again headed over and as the game was progressing, fitness levels were starting to make a difference as Nuneaton struggled to get in City's half. Jarrett smashed a ball against the post from 25 yards and when City gained a last minute free kick after Armson pushed howell, Jarrett stepped up and hit a thunderous strike into the bottom left hand corner to give City the lead. This sparked riots from a group of degenerate chavs at the bottom of the Nuneaton end.
The game ended soon afterwards and City were through, but it was far from a convincing performance.
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I think our front two should be Facey and Grimes. Grimes if not injured would have been taken off because Tilson would want some muscle up front to occupy their defence.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:11:06:21:31:51 by cherryexile.