Lincoln Moorlands v Worksop Town - Pre Season Friendly

Saturday 18th July 2009, Pre Season Friendly
Moorlands Sports Ground, Newark Road, Lincoln

Lincoln Moorlands (0) 0
Worksop Town (0) 1 (Danny Bacon 67)

Admission £2. No programme.
Dunham Toll Bridge 30p each way for a car.

Worksop had 7 players unavailable this afternoon, it's Gary Townsend's wedding day, which meant the starting line up had to be amended accordingly and several players were tried out in unfamiliar positions.
The first half got a bit niggardly in places, with the verbals and a few crunching tackles flying about that made a mockery of the word 'friendly'.
I guess if truth be told, I would prefer a 'competitive' game over a 'softly, softly' completely meaningless warm up game any day of the week (every day of the week even), so I shouldn't complain.
The referee had a bit of a torrid time in spells, but still managed to make things worse by calling a few wrong decisions.

Terrence the Tractor lamented that his friend Bertie the Bus didn't bother with pre season games so he had to come on his own today ;-)

Worksop's Kevin Sanasy hit the deck as he ran into the box, he called for a penalty, the ref waved it away and in that instance he was spot on, contact, if there was any at all, had been minimal.
But a short while later Chris Adam was felled by a Lincoln defender in the area as he surged towards the goal from the left wing ... the ref missed it and waved that one away too, incorrectly.
I guess Worksop had all their quota of penalties at Staveley last week.
The first half ground to a painful close ... both goalkeepers had dealt comfortably with the few (and far between) half hearted chances either side had barely mustered thus far.

Not sure if this was the real Michael Owen or not, I'm quite a shy and reserved person and was too embarrassed to actually ask him for an autograph.

The tempo in the second half picked up a little, not a lot mind, but the intent behind some of those 'firm tackles' rose accordingly too.
Nobody got hurt and all told it was a good rehearsal for both sides for when they have to meet fire with fire in a real match situation ... but it was now definitely game on.
One or two players can be grateful that the referee adopted a relaxed approach to dealing out his cards given that this wasn't officially a 'competitive' fixture. By the same token one could also suggest a couple of them took full advantage of that too.

Lincoln went closest to breaking the deadlock first, when Lee Beesley pulled a reflex save out of John Kennedy (now back with Worksop after his adventures with Sunderland and Blackpool amongst others) and the Tigers were lucky to get rid of the loose ball.
The near miss woke Worksop up and after a couple of threatening moves from play down the left wing (again), Danny Bacon got on the end of a low cross from Matt Glass to score the only goal of the game on 66 minutes (see picture below).
Moorlands nearly equalised (it wouldn't have been undeserved) when McDonagh (I think) rattled the woodwork with a shot that had Kennedy beaten.

Late on Worksop pushed forward and tried to make the score more comfortable from a few dead ball situations, but it wasn't to be.
Final score 0-1.
On this showing Moorlands won't be a pushover this season, they aren't frightened to 'mix it' with anyone. I can't envisage them facing another relegation battle like last term.
Lincoln Moorlands are a friendly and welcoming club with a decent social cub next to the ground and an undercover tea hut inside. Two sides of the ground have covered seating and there is a covered terrace on the same side as the dug outs too.

the66pow