Guinan goal pushes Lincoln aside

Northampton Town 1-0 Lincoln City
League Two
Saturday, October 17th 2009


Two managers new to life in a top job, two former players from completely opposite sides of the ladder of success, two rookies at taking a managerial position at this level. Ian Sampson took on Chris Sutton and came out on top in a tight game typical of the old battles between these two teams. The two men leading their sides to battle couldn’t have had any more of a different upbringing in the game with Sutton playing at the highest level and Sammo plugging away with loyal graft in the bottom two leagues of English football. But it was Sammo to come out of the game with all three points on a scrappy afternoon at Sixfields.

Lincoln were always tough opponents in days gone by and the trend didn’t change on Saturday afternoon. The Imps were always in and around the Cobblers’ faces in League Two, denying us on several occasions with their bustling ways. Time, it seems, hasn’t changed things. It’s credit to Sammo that he led us to this victory, gained with a bundle of a goal from Steve Guinan.

Guinan was an automatic choice up front in the absence of injury victim Courtney Herbert and Billy McKay also began the game with Bayo still in use as an impact substitute. That title certainly ringed true, for until the big man’s half time introduction the game was flat with Lincoln battling away and causing us few chances to attack.

The Imps, in fact, had the better of the actual chances with a Stefan Oakes free kick sailing just wide and Sergio Torres breaking through the Town defence to test Chris Dunn, who was equal to the shot and the sides went in level at half-time.

Bayo was brought on and immediately had an impact, setting up Luke Guttridge who fired in the first real shot of the game for his side that Rob Burch had to be alert to. Akinfenwa then headed wide from a trademark long throw from Andy Holt but we did find the breakthrough as we stepped things up, the clock running past the seventy minute mark.

A free kick from Guttridge was nodded back by Holt and Guinan eventually scrambled the ball home from close range to score the only goal of the game. Lincoln’s only contribution to the rest of the game was adding to their growing number of bookings, a total of six by the end of the game that earned the club a fine.

Pretty it was not, exciting it most definitely was not but three points it was and a clean sheet to go with it makes the previous two draws against Bradford and Bury look a lot better now. We’re slowly starting to move up the table and are unbeaten in five games in all competitions. There will be plenty of games like this one to come and the fact that we managed to grab the three points here could be vital come the final knockings.

League Two will be frustrating at times but it’s games like these that will be the backbone of any possibly push for the top half and the playoffs and with two tough away trips coming up at improving Morecambe and Torquay (who shared a 2-2 draw this weekend) we can be happy with the weekend’s work.