10-man Lincoln ended a three match losing streak with a 2-0 win over manager Gary Simpson’s former side, Macclesfield.
Goals from Tom Miller and Ben Tomlinson gave Lincoln the early advantage before Jordan Burrow was sent off.
Despite their numerical advantage, Macclesfield failed to put Lincoln under any real pressure and the hosts held on with ease to secure three valuable points.
Lincoln started brightly and took the lead in the 9th minute when Sean Newton’s long throw went into the box, Macclesfield failed to clear and the full back Tom Miller was able to drive the ball across the goal and past Taylor in the net.
The game would turn into scrappiness for ten minutes until a horrific pass from a Macclesfield player gave Jordan Burrow the ball who simply passed the ball to Ben Tomlinson who was able to round Taylor.
Despite being under pressure from Lincoln for then majority of the first half, the Silkmen did have some bright moments.
Portuguese midfielder Adriano Moke pace and trickiness caused headaches for the Lincoln defence and had their full backs falling on the floor to stop him.
However the Imps kept their domination up until Jordan Burrow went slid into a challenge on Moke with his studs up.
This caused the midfielder to retaliate with a push, much to the anger of Lincoln fans. Burrow was sent off, and Moke was booked.
Down to ten men, Lincoln’s aim in the second half was to kill the game off and stop Macclesfield from getting into it. This worked well with Lincoln not even looking like they had one less of a man.
In fact, it was the Imps that created the better chances with Sam-York’s strength allowing him to flick a ball onto Tomlinson who managed to beat the keeper but not the post.
Macclesfield falied to create many clear cut chances even with the extra man, and the closest they got to scoring was when once again Moke got the ball and cut outside of the defender only for his powerful shot to be straight at Nick Townsend.
After a series of disappointing losses, this will be a heartening win for Gary Simpson, especially when they were down to ten men for most of the game.
Match report written by Adam Allcroft
Match Ratings
- Nick Townsend 7 – Didn’t do much.
- Tom Miller 8 – Got a great goal and was resolute in defence.
- Nat Brown 8 – Part of a great defence
- Tom Anderson 8 – Kept a clean sheet om his debut, not much more you can ask for.
- Sean Newton 7 – Another one who performed well in defence but when Moke ran it him Newton struggled.
- Arnaud Mendy 7 – Nothing spectacular but did his job very well.
- Karl Ledsham 7 – Supported attacks well and had a shot that almost cleared the Stacy West stand.
- Hamza Bencherif 9 – An absolute monster in midfield today.
- Jordan Burrow 4 – A silly red card that could have cost his team.
- Ben Tomlinson 8 – He’s there to score goals and did so.
- Delano Sam-Yorke 9 – When Lincoln switched to long ball after going down to ten men, Sam-Yorke made meaningless clearances into chances. Worked his socks off for the team. (Linc Sport Man of the Match)
Substitutes
- Diagne 6 – Had no real time to make an impact
- Marshall 7 – Replaced Sam-Yorke well, but without his physicality struggled to do as much as him. Almost scored.
– Don’t forget to join us on Tuesday as Lincoln City take on Gateshead 7.45pm. You can follow all the action live on Twitter by following @LincSport or by using the hashtag #LincSportLive