The Imps went down 2-0 to Sheffield United at Sincil Bank last night to continue their winless streak in pre season.
City started with Burch in goal, Moses Swaibu partnered Janos Kovacs in defence and Shane Clarke started in midfield. Other than that the side was unchanged from the Arsenal friendly.
It was City who had a lot of the early pressure. Shane Clarke had a shot over from distance and Jamie Clarke managed to force a corner for the home side. However despite this there wasn’t a tangible effort on goal to call our own.
After a spell of similarly ineffective pressure from the Blades we almost secured an opening goal. Paul Connor charged down Ian Bennett's clearance in the box but the referee adjudged that the Imps player had handballed. Connor was working his socks off at this point but was being marshalled by Chris Morgan, who at times had to perform a wrestling hold on Connor to prevent his strides forward.
Sheff United were beginning to take control of the game but Lincoln were going to go down fighting, Brown unleashed a powerful shot which took a nasty deflection off Morgan to go out for a City corner which was eventually cleared by the Blades defence.
However just after the half hour The Blades took the lead, a lovely ball from the left finding centre half Leigh Bromby unmarked to coolly slot past Rob Burch. 1-0.
Aaron Brown, who looked out of sorts, managed to have a half decent effort at goal but his lob dropped just over Ian Bennetts crossbar, but as half time approached the only talking point was the drizzling rain as the game began to fizzle out.
The second half saw The Blades up the ante without ever really looking like scoring again, but for the Imps it saw Danny Hone cover at right back after Cian Hughton took a slight knock.
Also taking a few knocks was Paul Connor who was constantly buffeted and almost attacked at one point by Chris Morgan whose tactics resembled those of a rugby player, with his stature and aggression confirming he’s in the wrong sport.
A plethora of substitutes from Sheffield Utd saw them begin to dominate the game, and on one or two occasions it seemed Rob Burch’s goal would be breached, however as the 90 minute mark drew closer the game took on all the characteristics of a dour, meaningless pre season friendly.
Late in the second half some really good play from Paul Connor saw him slide a wonderful ball across goal to Shane Clarke who skied his effort high and wide from 15 yards. How Imps fans wished Chris Fagan had been on the end.
The last kick of the game saw United score their second after Glen Little stepped up on the right to deliver a powerful freekick from 20 yards straight into the back of the net.