Oct 5 Lincoln City 1-2 AFC Bournemouth Att: 3273

After a few siocialable beers in Lincoln with my brother and my work mate from Saudi; Paul Brown and exiled Imps fan, we arrived at the Bank. Around 350 Cherries fans making alot of noise easily outshouted the home fans, the Lincoln mascot, a pie munching half-lion half - Gremlin thing was the subject of alot of friendly banter. The Bournemouth formation was a surprise, playing a loose 4-1-4-1 with Marcus Browning protecting our depleted defence.

Bournemouth made the early running and Danny Thomas and Alan Connell both had shots wide early on. We drew first blood after 13 minutes, a Hayter shot deflected off their giant defender Futcher for a corner. The resulting corner routine allowed Thomas to cross and the ball was stepped over for an unmarked Stephen Purches to drill a 30 yard daisy cutter into the far corner (belter!!!). But it only took 4 minutes for the Imps to equalise with another excellent goal, a Bimson (Uncle Fester lookalike) freekick was headed down by Futcher and Dene Cropper sent a looping volley into the net from 12 yards. Just 2 minutes later Lincoln missed a sitter, a high ball into the box was only punched by Moss the ball looped up and all the Lincoln forward had to do was nod it home from 6 yards but somehow he managed to put his effort over. The last chance of the first half fell to Connell, a long kick from Moss caused panic in the Imps box and Connell`s snap shot was prodded forward only to see the keeper Marriott push the ball around the post.

Half Time 1-1

The first exchanges of the second half were as expected with the Lincoln aerial bombardment, but our defence held strong. Then Lincoln broke on the hour mark, Moss seemed to have gathered the ball but the Lincoln forward played it well and the penalty was awarded. From villain to hero Moss guessed right and parried Paul Smith's penalty. 4 minutes later we were ahead, another long kick from Moss caused panic and Bimson's back pass to his keeper was overweighed, Connell nipped in and slotted home from an acute angle, left footed passed Marriott. He showed his pride of playing in a Cherries shirt by running to us kissing the badge, only to get booked for over zealous celebrations (HARSH!!!). The next monumental event saw the surprise return of Supa Fletch for Alan Connell, he received an ovation which was only matched by that for the arrival of talisman Fletcher. Supa nearly marked his long awaited return by nearly scoring with his first touch, only to see his scuffed shot cleared off the line.

The final 15 minutes was spent defending the Lincoln high balls and after what seemed like 5 minutes of injury time the ref blew for full time. A solid if not spectacular performance, pleasing because we competed well against a very strong Lincoln physical outfit.

Alan Connell: All action display reminds me of a young Jonesy, he was very sharp through out and has pace and vision and took his goal well.

AFCB: Moss, Purches, Young, Broadhurst, C Fletcher, Stock, Elliott, Browning, Hayter, Thomas, Connell
Subs: Tardif, S Fletcher, Narada, Eribenne, Foyewa

Steve Ferret, Saudi Arabia