Lincoln City continued their excellent start to the league season, remaining at the top of the league, after substitute Tom Pett got the only goal of the game a minute after coming on at Sincil Bank against Crewe Alexandra on Saturday afternoon.
Manager David Artell made 1 change from Tuesday night’s 1-0 victory at home to Swindon Town with Perry Ng replacing Nicky Hunt at centre-back whilst Harry Pickering was back on the bench (coming on for the final 20 minutes) after missing the last 7 games through injury.
The opening chance of the game came on just before the half-hour mark as John Akinde, who was joint top-scorer in this league a couple of seasons ago, fired over Ben Garratt’s bar before the striker almost scored a couple of minutes later with Alex captain George Ray making a key block.
The first Alex chance came 3 minutes after the half-time break as James Jones’ diagonal ball found Callum Ainley with the midfielder unable to shoot before keeper Josh Vickers took it off his toes. Ryan Wintle was next to have an effort as his volley from outside the area just over the bar.
The only goal of the game came on 58 minutes as Pett volleyed in after good work from Akinde past Garratt before Corey Whelan forced Vickers into a save at the other end. There was another effort for the visitors as Kirk couldn’t quite turn in Whelan’s cross before Garratt denied Bruno Andrade and then Lee Frecklington from the penalty spot after Kevin O’Connor fouled Andrade.
The next game sees the Alex host Ryan Lowe’s Bury next weekend.
What have we learned from this game?
It’s another soft goal that we’ve conceded that really should have been dealt with before getting to Garratt, who should still save it, but I suppose that the penalty save makes up for it although it’s not the best penalty from Frecklington. With Bury next up on Saturday, and the welcome sight of Byron Moore, Chris Dagnall and Nicky Maynard (whose acrobatic goal from Saturday is well worth looking for if you haven’t seen it), it’ll be interesting to see which Alex side we’ll see against them.