A Year in Review : September

September wasn't a good month for results on the pitch, only one win in five games, just two goals scored and performances that didn't inspire. Despite that, September was a brilliant month for the Imps as Chris Sutton quit the club, taking his incompetence with him.

On the back of a four point haul against Gillingham and Crewe, Lincoln made their first ever trip to Chesterfield’s new B2Net Stadium in early September. Despite being the closest game in terms of distance for the Imps, a poor away following watched as Chesterfield sailed into a comfortable 2-0 lead, only a Ben Hutchinson effort just before full time gave City respectability for the game. It was the striker’s first goal since arriving on loan from Celtic.

Albert Jarrett had missed that game due to being on international duty with Sierra Leone, whom he helped to a respectable 1-1 against Egypt, one of the better teams in African football.

With newsworthy moments few and far between early in September, the next thing for the Imps was a home game against Barnet. City were second best for large periods of the match but an early penalty from Ben Hutchinson gave City victory. The victory meant that City equalled their highest ever position under Chris Sutton, 15^th.

City could have moved sixth with a win at Accrington Stanley, but the Imps slumped to a heavy 3-0 defeat against a confident Stanley side who were surprising many at the top of the table. Scott Kerr also sent off for the Imps.

September was horrendously quiet up until this point, with non-match worthy highlights few and far between, although Delroy Facey was called up to the Grenana national side for a qualifying round for the Caribbean Cup.

Stevenage made their first ever visit to Sincil Bank towards the end of September and bought with them one of the weirdest sets of set-piece tactics you’re ever likely to see. For a corner, they would gather in a huddle outside the box and then sprint out in the shape of a star when the ball was played in. It worked however as Chris Holroyd scored the only goal on the game on his Stevenage debut to give them the win.

A midweek home game against might not sound that important, or even exciting, and for the latter you would certainly be correct as the Imps and Burton played out a 0-0 draw. The true significance of the game came in the morning after the game.

City fans woke up on Wednesday morning with the club staring at the relegation zone, but then at 10:56am, it was revealed that Chris Sutton had left the club due to personal reasons, exactly one year to the day after he was appointed. In his year in charge Sutton had turned a team that were fighting for the Playoffs in the previous season (although still a considerable way off for most of it) and turned them into a side who barely fought off of relegation. Ian Pearce also left the club as both player and assistant manager.

Numerous names were linked with the job, including Accrington’s John Coleman, former Doncaster manager Dave Penney, Gareth Ainsworth, Steve Thompson and Steve Tilson. For the time being Paul Musselwhite and Scott Lindsey were placed in charge.

The final news of September came in the form of Adifane Noussara gaining international clearance to play for the Imps.