Yesterday Lincoln City were condemned to the trap door of English football, they were expelled to the Blue Square Bet Premier League, or as we football purists like to call it, the Conference.
So what no for Lincoln City after their second removal from the football league in 24 years? Well, it can hardly be said that there will be a mass exodus of players from Sincil Bank after the relegation, as there really is very little quality among them.
The only players you could argue have an immediate future in league football are Captain Delroy Facey, whose injury sparked the Imps’ awful run of form. Centre back Danny Hone is only young and probably could play for the Northampton’s or Barnet’s of League 2. Apart from them and the loan star Ashley Grimes who will be returning to Milwall, there really are no players who can argue that they are league 2 quality.
So what went wrong yesterday at Sincil Bank? Well the first mistake was that of Steve Tilson’s, he set up in a defensive 4-5-1 formation with Ashley Grimes as a lone striker. Grimes cut a frustrated figure as he struggled against Aldershot’s strong back line, it was obvious that he needed a strike partner to hold the ball up and provide flick ons, sadly his partner who had seen Grime’s and Lincoln through their best run of form Delroy Facey was still injured.
So maybe it wasn’t Steve Tilson’s fault, he has almost been forced into playing Grimes alone up top, due to the lack of effective options up front. Celtic loanee Ben Hutchinson has proved ineffective in his season on loan here and in my opinion was rightly chosen to warm the bench. Drewe Broughton was another option; with his height and power surely he would be the perfect partner? Anybody who believes this needs to be walked out of Sincil Bank and given a long lesson in good football. Yes, Broughton is tall, but this doesn’t automatically mean he will win it in the air. If anybody has watched the journeyman striker this season you would have seen that he was dreadful and most definitely not the solution.
Tilson’s decision to play for the draw with a 4-5-1 proved the wrong one though as Barnet scored a penalty as the first half kicked off. So surely when he heard this news he would have had to go for broke, 1-0 at Underhill meant the Imps had to win to survive, so why not go for broke. Take of Fuseni who had been ineffective and bring on SOMEONE! It wasn’t to be though, and as the crowd support dwindled after the news from Underhill so did the Imps performance, they shipped 3 goals and left relegated, defeated and utterly deflated.
The atmosphere at Sincil Bank was morbid afterwards, it was the atmosphere of a feeling of a proud football club with a good support, who on the 7th May 2011 took a big step towards not existing at all in the football league ever again.
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