Green returns & has big impact as City draw at Crewe
By Nathan Jackson
April 16 2011
Paul Green made a welcome return to action at Crewe on Saturday afternoon and had an interesting afternoon. He put in a good performance, scored just after half time and gave away the penalty that eventually saw the game end 1-1, a dull return it was not.
The Imps lined up with an unambitious 4-5-1 formation but it was City who pressed first as Luke Howell fed in Fuseini, the former Millwall man hit a first time effort that sailed well over the goal. Hutchinson was unlucky to see a Gavin McCallum cross bounce off of his knee and into the arms of Taylor. Hone headed a corner at Taylor to complete a good opening for the Imps.
Crewe's first attack saw City gain a controversial free kick as Danny Hone seemed to deny Clayton Donaldson a clear run on goal unfairly, but it was Hone who instead of the decision. Donaldson was denied by Parish with a header for Crewe's first shot of the gamme before Tootle shot well wide of the target.
Howell hit a corner that eventually fell to Keltie and his 25 yard effort hit the crossbar. Fuseini smashed well over for the Imps after good work from Kelly before the latter seemed to have won a penalty for the Imps after being bought down the area by Ada, only for Martin to decide against the penalty and wave play-on. Neither side managed any other chances before the end of the half and the sides went in in level.
It didn't take a long time for the deadlock to be broken in the second half as a McCallum cross went out for a corner. City's poor deliveries at set-pieces is well known amongst Imps fans and the delivery for this wasn't brilliant but it was played back across goal by Hone and the only man to have been at the club longer than Hone, Paul Green, proded the ball off of the post to score his first goal in more than 2 years.
Grant was booked for a foul on Kelly just before the hour and he was quickly substituted, replaced by Byron Moore. Powell replaced Shelley for the hosts in a half that was going by slowly. Kilbey was booked after fouling Moore.
McCallum dragged a shot wide and from the resulting goalkick Green and Miller were tussling for the ball and the latter went down rather easily, the referee pointed to the spot and Donaldson slotted the ball home. Hone was booked for his objections to the awarding and Green gained a yellow for a foul on the edge of the area.
McCallum had a goalbound shot deflected for a corner but neither side managed any other shots and the game ended 1-1.
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I don't think anyone put in a bad performance and the there was a generally high level of fight.
My main criticism was that once we scored the goal we seemed reluctant to try and go on and win it. They swapped to 4-3-3 and whenever we went forward we kept 3 defenders and Keltie at the back. Coupled with that the midfiled just didn't make runs into the final third and Hutchinson (when he did manage to control a ball into him) had no choice but to play it back into the midfield where it had come from.
At one point Hutchinson was in the corner with the ball, there were 9 Lincoln players in their half and not one in the box.
The fear of losing massively outweighed the desire to score.
Thoroughly enjoyable and I bet the Lino had a stiff drink when he got home after all the abuse our fans threw at him.
