IMPS V BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION REPORT
Saturday 17th March 2000 - Nationwide League Division 3
From Sincil Bank

Lincoln City 1 - 3 Brighton & Hove Albion

UNBEATEN RUN ENDED BY DISASTEROUS DISPLAY

By Mark Morris from Sincil Bank Stadium

The eight game unbeaten run came to an end after a disasterous display by Lincoln City who were in the end well beaten by the Seagulls.

Brighton had attacking problems with injuries and the formation was unknown until after kick off, they suprised the Imps by starting with a 4-4-3 formation, it took Lincoln well over 30 minutes to sort themselves out, with Richard Peacock and Aaron Lescott swapping positions at least twice, the latter making his home debut.

Brighton rattled City by playing a very physical and direct game, and that could explain why a Premiership referee has been assigned to every Brighton game. With the Imps still finding their feet the Seagulls had the majority of the ball in the first off, and this paid off with Darren Freeman hitting the back on the net when the ball came in from a corner, just before half time.

Lincoln could have been 1-0 up before Brighton scored when City won a throw-in and Terry Fleming threw in ball long and went straight into the net through a cluster of bodies, but the referee said no one had touched it.

The second half started brightly for City with the introduction of Lee Philpott, after some neat play the Imps won a throw-in, Terry Fleming again threw it long, this time Lee Thorpe smashed it into the back of the net. Lincoln had a good spell of posession creating more chances than they had in the first half, then the ball came to Richard Peacock who crashed the ball into the post and the ball rebounded back out to the 'keeper.

That miss proved to be costly for Lincoln, when Albion won a corner, the ball was crossed in and Pual Rogers squeezed the ball between post and Fleming, Terry just stood there when he could have lashed at the ball and cleared it. John Finnigan who made his first home start for six weeks was substituted for Dave Phillips five minutes before the goal.

Brighton then took control of the game like they had done in the first half, and the Imps began to lose their way, finding it hard to put a string of passes together suffering again from Brighton physical pressence which resulted in Rogers scoring his second goal with just over ten minutes left. More than a few fans then left shortly after the celebrations probably because they had enough of the performance, which I am sure down-hearted the players further.

City then sacrificed left back Paul Mayo taking him off for Tony Battersby and changing the formation, but all this was in vein as Brighton were well in control.

John Reames said this game was a must win, now they must re-focus for the away game on Tuesday against York City, kick off 7:45pm if they have any chance of reaching the play-off's. I don't writing the reports very often, but I had to this game because James is away having a short break, and he has really landed me in it today as I can't really say much else. As Reames said in the post-match interview the York City match is a must win.

MATCH STATS
	LINCOLN CITY		V	BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION
STARTING LINE-UP
	Alan Marriott Jason Barnett Grant Brown Steve Welsh Richard Peacock Terry Fleming John Finnigan Aaron Lescott Paul Mayo Gavin Gordon Lee Thorpe			Mark Walton Paul Watson Kerry Mayo Danny Cullip Andy Crosby Darren Carr Paul Rogers Charlie Oatway Paul Brooker Darren Freeman Scott Ramsey
FORMATIONS
	3-5-2 4-4-2 (27 mins) 3-5-2 (introduction of Tony Battersby)			4-3-3
SUBSTUTIONS
	Barry Richardson Anthony Henry David Phillips (John Finnigan 61) Lee Philpott (for Aaron Lescott 45) Tony Battersby for Paul Mayo 77)			Mark Ormerod Rod Thomas (for Darren Carr 65) Chris McPhee (for Scott Ramsey 89) Warren Aspinall (for C Oatway 81) Jamie Campball
GOALS
	Lee Thorpe (49)			Darren Freeman (44) Paul Rogers (66, 79)
BOOKINGS
	RED	YELLOW		RED	YELLOW
	There was a yellow card although it was unclear who the ref was booking.
IMPS ONLINE MAN OF THE MATCH
	RICHARD PEACOCK probably has most of Lincoln's best chances, and hitting the post. He once again showed why he could play ahead of Paul Smith by beating the last man and putting in a quality cross.

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