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Reaction to the win at Chester City
By Nathan Jackson October 5 2008
Lincoln City in dominating a game and winning shock! For only the second time this season, a dominant City display was greeted with the deserved result as City won at Chester City. The Imps never looked like conceding in a game where Rob Burch wasn't forced into making a save, but let's not take away the fact that Lincoln deserved to win this game.

It's been a while since I've been able to combine the words dominant and win, but that's what I am able to do right now. Ok, there were moments here and there that weren't exactly promotion challenging quality, but the most important part is that we're now moving even further away from the relegation spots. Even though we're only 5 points off of the Playoffs and 17 above the drop zone, I won't begin to stop thinking about the possibility of going down until we start winning on a regular basis.

I've said it plenty of times that unbeaten runs mean nothing if you are drawing most of those games. For example, if a team went twenty games unbeaten but drew all of those, they've only have twenty points, whereas another team could lose thirteen out of twenty, but win the other seven and have more points than the team that hasn't lost for nearly half the season. Don't get me wrong, I don't think Bournemouth or Luton are capable of catching up on 17 and 27 points respectively, but let's not just count our chickens before they hatch.

However, enough of the seemingly negative stuff and let's move on to some good aspects of the game against Chester. Firstly, again it was a dominating performance by the Imps, even a lot of Chester fans have praised the way we went about the game (the below quotes are taken from Deva Chat - www.devachat.com)

"Lincoln were very well organised and they have 4 6ft + players across the backline and in particular, Kovacs, just mopped up our long balls which we seemed intent on playing." Jack

"Quite simply, we were beaten by a better team on the day. They were stronger, quicker, passed better and generally looked sharper throughout the game. We weren't allowed to play and the whole team looked poor as a result." 3mm

It's been quite some time since we've seen comments like that. For example, we beat Stockport 3-1 last season and in typical Stockport County bitterness, they described us as the worst team they had seen in a long time (says it all about their team at the time considering the scoreline). Infact, it's not since the days of regularly thrashing sides under the early days of Schofield and Deehan that we have been able to see opposition fans speak so highly of our team.

The vast majority of our players had a decent game, but I am still a tiny bit surprised that Jackson failed to make a substitute that wasn't enforced (again). Perhaps towards the end he could have put Ben Wright on for example, he certainly needs a goal and Chester's defence looked about as breakable as a CD thrown into the path of a combine harvester.

In terms of the actual players, although it was a good team performance, the one player who stood out for me (again) was Danny Hone. The young defender has been a steady head throughout his appearances so far this season and I find it no coincedence that we haven't lost this season when Danny has played. He's the one defender that constantly performs and he is turning into one of our best players.

Other than that we have the usual suspects of Adrian Patulea and Scott Kerr being on the list of those that although not spectacular, put in very respectable performances.  Again though, I have to give mention to Shane Clarke. He was god awful last season but has finally started putting in the performances that impressed me whilst he was playing for the reserves and he certainly learns quickly.....he no longer leads into headers with elbows.

Overall, I am quite satisfied with yesterday's performance but we now face a few difficult games at home, we'll certainly have to be on our game, but the future is starting to look good.

THEIMPS.TK UNOFFICIAL PLAYER RATINGS FOR THE GAME AGAINST BRENTFORD

PLAYER

RATING

COMMENTS

1 - ROB BURCH

6

Didn't really have anything to do but his kicking definitely needs some work. However, he commanded his box relatively well and caught some difficult crosses.

2 - PAUL GREEN

Steady if unspectacular performance from Green, put some decent balls into the box.

3 - AARON BROWN

7.5

Said in the paper midweek that he is a left winger naturally and although I already thought that he was better in that position, I was impressed with his contributions when he came on at half time.

4 - JANOS KOVACS

7

His first really good performance for the Imps. Debateable whether it was his goal or not but the quotes from the Chester fans say it all about his defensive display.

5 - LEE BEEVERS

7

Loving his runs into the box when he was trying to take four defenders on at once. Reasonably solid at left back.

8 - LEE FRECKLINGTON

6

Bit average to be honest, not a bad performance in his 45 minutes on the pitch but didn't really do anything.

11 - SCOTT KERR

7

Solid and dependable as usual, can't complain.

12 - DANY N'GUESSAN

7.5

Looked dangerous going forward but still a bit selfish when he gets into the box, but at least it's an improvement.

14 - LENELL JOHN-LEWIS

4

If there's one player that's not impressing at the moment then it's LJL. He's not a bad player but nothing seems to be going well for him at the moment. Maybe it's time for him to have a spell out of the team.

16 - DANIEL HONE

8.5

Now, it's very rare I give 8, let alone 8.5 but that's how impressed I was with Daniel on Saturday. Solid and dependable, stopped several runs into the box and had Kevin Ellison in his back pocket, leading to Ellison to hit Daniel in the face and that lead to a rumoured enquiry from the police after the game.

19 - SHANE CLARKE 

7.5

See paragraph about him in the main article.

23 - ADRIAN PATULEA

7

Good finish for the goal, looked dangerous going forward but again should have had more. Can't complain though as he is certainly doing well in the early stages of his career at Sincil Bank.

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Re: Reaction to the win at Chester City
Posted by: Aryan_imp (IP Logged)
Date: 2008:10:05:16:36:58

Clarke should eradicate, crossfield hospital balls from his game immediately ......... only criticism of yesterday mind, bar Dany's shooting, when colleagues were better placed!




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I'd have worn a burqa, but they couldn't hear me singin'
Geraldine McQueen - Britain's Got The Pop Factor winner.

Re: Reaction to the win at Chester City
Posted by: chesterimp (IP Logged)
Date: 2008:10:05:19:23:57

Ratings seem fair enough to me except for LJL - would agree with 4 for his first half,seemed low on confidence but much improved 2nd half worth a higher score than that, played a full role in the first 20 mins of the second half when City tore Chester to shreds.

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