Text updates will appear here and on the home page of the main site during the game. The other forum topic has been moved to the General area (as Eddie’s point was a good one)!
Witton team
Kennedy, Dillan, Brownhill, Pritchard, Barras, Spearritt, Brown, Lloyd, Warlow, Brodie, Peers.
Subs: Proffitt, Crowe, Danylyk.
Sounds like a pretty strong line-up. Looking forward to the updates. Come on the Albion!!!
Half Time Score: LINCOLN UNITED 0 WITTON ALBION 0.
Latest Score: LINCOLN UNITED 1 WITTON ALBION 0.
Opening goal coming from a corner.
Lincoln down to 10 men following a shocking tackle on Tom Spearritt.
bloody el, wasnt expecting this however i went to lincoln last year and it was a hard place to go and bring back 3 points still time ho come on witerrrrnnnn!!!
Full Time Score: LINCOLN UNITED 1 WITTON ALBION 0.
unlucky lads :-[ bring on marine ;D we r albion say we are albion
Gutted! Never a great start to the season but never mind! roll on tuesday and lets bounce back straight away in style at wincham park! Come on Witton!
Gutted.we lacked the fire power and killer instinct.What is this with a string of passes and not getting anywhere? Should have won it in first half but no shots at the goal,just passes passes and more passes.Feel sorry for 70 odd fans who took great trouble to go in fantastic fancy dresses and cheering the team along till the very last minute.
Still one swallow doesn’t bring [?make] spring.as long as we can learn from our mistakes.Still a long way to go.Teams don’t win trophies in August. 
Just got in after a long day - very disappointing.
1 game does not make a season at all correct, and we will still do very well this season with that squad. I’m sure however all the players and management know that wasn’t particularly good today.
Peers weak 18 yard strike in the 1st half being the only 1 I can think of that the keeper actually had to save. As a word of note - they celebrated like they’d won the league afterwards - we have to deal with teams attitude to us now - we simple didn’t today.
I’m sure Chad’s brief match report will demonstate what an "exciting" game it really was. I remember JK making 2 saves. Marine can only be better.
From the Lincoln site:
Clipped and lunge are a little tame I feel, and 195 strong should not be something they get too used to! Anyway who knows they may end up being rivals for promotion!
RAMSHAW REVOLUTION UNDERWAY AS WHITES WIN AGAINST WITTON
By Tom Parker
A heroic second half display ensured Lincoln United, and their new manager John Ramshaw, got off to the perfect start in the Unibond Premier Division, writes Tom Parker.
United won 1-0 against promotion hopefuls Witton Albion courtesy of a second half Danny Brooks header from a Gio Carchedi corner and could have won by a greater margin at Ashby Avenue, in front of a 195 strong crowd.
Their opening day joy was marred slightly by the incredibly harsh dismissal of striker Craig McGuiness, who had only been on the pitch a short time, before his 76th minute sending off for a lunge on Witton defender Tom Spearritt. Manager Ramshaw was extremely disappointed with the decision of referee Bell. ‘I though it was a disgraceful decision to be honest, at worst it was a yellow card because he just clipped him, it was harsh.’ Ramshaw said.
The new look Whites included seven debutants in their starting line-up with two more, Scott Huckerby and McGuiness, named on the substitutes bench. Manager Ramshaw was delighted with his side’s performance, he said: ‘We were excellent as I thought we were the stronger side, it is an excellent start for us and just rewards for all the hard work of the players and staff over the summer.’
In a fairly even first period, United had the more frequent and better chances. Their best effort of the half came in the tenth minute when an intricate Brooks pass found striker Justin Jenkins, who strongly held-off three Witton defenders before picking out Jon Douglas, who turned instantaneously and unleashed a powerful left footed strike which was well saved by Witton ‘keeper Jon Kennedy.
The Whites were well organised and defended terrifically at times, with captain and ‘keeper Ben Scott marshalling the back-line excellently, by just restricting the visitors to long shots, as United got men behind the ball quickly when Witton broke forward. When the ball did reach the six and eighteen yard box, it was dealt with effectively by the imperious presences of Ben Brown, Chris Glarvey and Iain Screaton.
In an otherwise flat first half for Witton, a long range shot by Mark Peers, following a quick break was the best Jim Vance’s side could muster. This was surprising considering Witton missed out on promotion by a goal on goal differnce last season, amassing an amazing ninety goals in the process, with ex Crewe striker Adam Warlow netting twenty-four but United kept the front man quiet and peripheral to the action.
The second half was played at a higher tempo with the Whites dominating. Five minutes into the half Brooks missed an excellent opportunity when in a fantastic goalscoring position. Strong work down the United right by Douglas resulted in a perfect pass to Brooks, who fired wide from close range and really ought to have scored.
Witton responded through their advancing left back Liam Brownhill, when he embarked on a fabulous solo run before firing his shot wide from eighteen yards out.
United would have taken the lead much earlier if it wasn’t for a fantastic saving tackle from Witton central defender Brian Pritchard. An accurate Scott goal-kick found substitute Gary Walters on the left, who flicked the ball first time into the path of Jenkins who was bearing down on goal when the timely intervention occurred from Pritchard.
United did deservedly take the lead when a whipped delivery from Carchedi found an un-marked Brooks at the back post, Brooks guided the ball into the top corner past keeper Kennedy.
Soon after, as McGuiness was working hard closing down the Witton defenders, he lunged into Spearritt in a genuine attempt to win the ball and consequently, to the amazement of the crowd, was dismissed.
McGuiness’ sending off meant a difficult last fifteen minutes, plus an additional four minutes the referee added on, for United but they valiantly withstood everything Witton threw at them to pick up the three points much to the delight of their new manager.
TEAMS:
LINCOLN UTD: Scott, Rodman, Brooks, Screaton, Glarvey, Brown, White, Carchedi, Jenkins (Huckerby), Douglas (McGuiness), Norris (Walters)
WITTON ALBION: Kennedy, Dillon (Proffitt), Brownhill, Pritchard, Barras (Crowe), Brown, Lloyd (Danylyck), Warlow, Brodie, Peers
Referee: M Bell
Attendace: 195
[color=red]NOT LAUGHTER IN THE RAIN FOR ALBION[/color]
Saturday August 18th 2007 - UniBond Premier Division
Lincoln United 1 Witton Albion 0 att. 195
Like a lot of other so called “fancied teams” Albion’s opening performance of the new season stuttered and stumbled before eventually sliding from under them at Ashby Avenue. The Lincoln United club officials rubbed their hands gleefully as their normal attendance was swelled by around 70 Witton followers many of whom, for the most part, were able to turn the event into a carnival atmosphere bedecked in all sorts of imaginative fancy dress costumes.
Sadly though they witnessed a team, flowing with an abundance of good football players, fail to succeed where it matters, in their opponents goal area. To give United much credit though their defenders in particular produced a great shackling performance that restricted certainly Adam Warlow of all the forwards from making their mark.
The home team’s intentions were clearly obvious from the start when both Ian Screaton and Ben Brown incurred the wrath of Rotherham referee Michael Bell, picking up early cautions for fouls on Jon Kennedy and Warlow. Somehow though Danny Brooks, who went on to score the only goal, got away with an even wilder challenge when he took Mark Peers’s feet from under the flying winger. Peers was obviously seen as a danger man as earlier he produced a “John Barnes” type run leaving half a dozen players in his wake.
Kennedy in the 8th minute produced a good blocking save to deny a powerful shot from Giovanni Carchedi. Albion’s first shot came in the 19th minute when following a quick break Peers’s saw his shot saved by goalkeeper and captain Ben Scott at his feet. Apart though from a dipping shot from Alex Brown, later in the half, that Scott held onto low down that summed up the only shots on target that Albion mustered throughout the whole match.
Albion’s new skipper Tony Barras received a caution two minutes after the restart before Scott judged Brown’s intended through ball to John Dillon far more quickly than the ex Crewe youngster, racing out of his area to kick the ball away. Athough Warlow superbly won possession back to find Peers the eventually cross faded out of play.
Jim Vince immediately introduced Dorryl Proffitt and for a time the extra injection of pace looked like it may work but when Barras felt a tweak to his hamstring the whole shape of the team started to change. Steve Brodie, who’d previously been influential, reverted to a right back position. Albion’s best attacking move of the second half came when Liam Brownhill embarked on a 70 yard excursion upfield, cutting in from the left before sending his shot outside the far post. Carchedi was next to be booked for fouling Peers.
United though had started to fancy their chances and it took a last gasp saving tackle from Brian Pritchard to deny Justin Jenkins. The all important goal came in the 74th minute and once more Albion were undone from a corner-kick. Carchedi finding an un-marked Brooks at the back post, who headed firmly into the top corner.
Two minutes later the home side were down to ten men when substitute Craig McGuiness, only on the pitch for 9 minutes, scythed Tom Spearritt down. Instead of taking advantage though it was still Lincoln who called the tune and Kennedy, with three minutes remaining, superbly tipped over a rasping shot from the left. Spearritt, somewhat recovered despite shocking stud marks on his leg, attempted to pull the scores level when he sent the closest effort of the second period narrowly wide of the nearside upright.
It was not to be though and despite probably having around 70% ball possession the lack of decent supply balls to the forwards needs to be rectified for Albion to get their season truly off and running.
TEAM: Kennedy; Spearritt, Pritchard, Barras (Crowe 57), Brownhill; Peers, Brown, Dillon (Proffitt 55), Lloyd (Danylyck 67); Brodie, Warlow.
Man of Match: Liam Brownhill
Pretty disappointing, what appeared to be quite an attacking line up when the team was announced was actually a pretty negative 4-5-1 in reality. With the class we have in our squad we shouldn’t be giving that much respect to a team as painfully average as Lincoln.
Biggest issue fro me yesterday was the decision to start Dillon in the middle (I say middle although I am not sure that I knew or he knew where he was playing)! The lad is young and has only had a couple of pre-season runs.
I feel that we should be introducing someone like Dillon as a second half sub for either Brown or Lloyd as required. He certainly has the ability for me the centre of midfield was filled with too many of the same type of player. Even Peers was playing too much through the middle and should have stretched their defence more.
I would have rather seen Danylyk start, his experience with Leek makes him more familiar with games like yesterday!
The report by the Lincoln "reporter" was shocking as were the comments by their manager. The tackle on Spearitt was a sending off in any division. It was late and off the ground! If that tackle had been made by one of our players they would have been very angry if the player had not been sent off. Lincoln deserve lots of credit for the way they defended in the second half and they stopped us from coming forward.
If points were given for playing attractice passing football then we would be the winners, but we have to learn to be more direct in the final third. Sometimes there is a danger that we over complicate things and try to score the ‘perfect goal’. From around the box at this level we should be whipping in crosses and testing the opposition keeper. We have got some great strikers of the ball so should try our luck a bit more. Teams will play against us this season the same way that Lincoln did and you could tell from their reaction afterwards that they thought they had won the league - beating Witton is a big result for them, bit like a cup final!
There is no crisis in the way we played, we just need to get the balance between attractive and effective.
Cracking turn out from the supporters yesterday, a real credit to the club and a very enjoyable day (whatever the result)!
here we go again going too rule the world but when it comes too the crunch were not there just like last year
The season is over already then! Not worth going on Saturday!
:-
Can’t help but agreeing with Billy48, afterall last season was one of our worst in living memory. After setting a realistic target such as aiming for the play offs, we went and buggered that up by missing out on the league on the final day by just 1 goal. Ridiculous. We should of just finished top-end of mid-table like every other season, that would of been much more entertaining. Looking back, last season we again had an awful start. Can’t beleive we only went to Ferriby and won 4 - 0. I blame poor management. Should of won 10 - 0 really. But then we may of actually ended up winning the league, and that would of just been a nightmare… :
First things first - disappointing result against a Lincoln side set up to defend which they did very well - so credit where credit’s due. I thought they got a bit lucky with the goal coming after Tony Barras had to go off and his departure seemed to unsettle our defence. Up to that point LIncoln had very little in the way of goal scoring opportunities. Overall I think a draw would have been a fair result.
But let’s get this in perspective Billy48, I would much rather look forward to the prospect of seeing Witton rather than watching Lincoln every week who I thought were a big physical team and quite cynical at times.
For our part we can expect more of the same from teams who will try everything not to let us play our natural game and we have to overcome that. I am sure that will not be lost on Jim and Nige
Dissapointing but there will be a few of those results, but I think we will be in the mix at the end, I do agree that we lack a couple of players to really cope with all types of opponents, eg a big tough midfilelder who can mix it and win airial battles and a decxent striker to parner Warlow, Brodsie is skilful and hardworking but I see him as a midfielder or second striker not an out and out striker, thelack of these 2 players means we can lose opur way in cetain games where we are to pretty sometimes and can be easy to stifle if they can mark Warlow out of it.
looking forward to a good win on tuesday v marine though and we will entertain for sure.