Day 117

I went ahead with the plan of putting Kanouté, Woods, Robert Taylor, and Sam Smith in the starting lineup for our cup game against Buxton. It was set to be Taylor's first start for the team, just one week after his 17th birthday. And for Woods, the new signing upon whom we're pinning our hopes, it was to be his professional debut—the 21 year old never played for Chelsea, and failed to make an appearance during a brief loan spell at Notts County last season.

Youngsters Karlton Watson and Will Rawdon made the bench, while regular starters Shuker and Barnes-Homer were also among the substitutes. Anyon, Atkinson, and Rodney made up the numbers.

I sent my boys out with clear instructions to attack. We earned three corners in the opening ten minutes, and dominated possession, but Buxton put up a good defensive fight...for a while.

In the 25th minute Smith was pulled down in the box. Koroma calmly converted the resulting penalty. We continued our domination from there, with Koroma going close from a glancing header five minutes later and Russell blocked at close range on 35 minutes.

Buxton held out for the remainder of the half, just barely clinging on to their one goal deficit. We looked strong and confident going forward, so I figured there'd be more goals in the second half.

Koroma was unlucky not to double our lead in the 53rd minute, when he beat his man with a brilliant change of pace and fired a shot in low. The goalkeeper did well to punch it away.

Park scored his first Lincoln goal from a direct free kick on the hour mark. It should have been Koroma's goal, though, after a lovely move that led to the striker being cynically dragged down just outside the box before he could shoot.

Taylor added a third just two minutes later. Koroma passed short to Smith from the edge of the area, then the big striker took three touches and fired a shot against the inside of the post. First to react, young Taylor had the goal at his mercy.

I took the opportunity here to bring youngsters Watson and Rawdon in for Marques and Russell. It seemed a great chance for the lads to get first-team experience in a low-pressure environment.

Smith finally got his goal in the 68th minute, climbing high to meet a Taylor corner. It was a powerful header from the striker, who had been unlucky not to score on two previous occasions.

I took Koroma off for Rodney after this; I wanted to keep my in-form striker fresh for the midweek match.

Youngster Will Rawdon set up Taylor with an inch-perfect cross on 74 minutes. The 17-year-old winger met the ball with a diving header that left the hapless Buxton keeper to pick the ball out of his net for the fifth time.

Robert Taylor earned a well-deserved man of the match, although the honours could have just as easily been given to Sam Smith—stunning on his return from a two-month injury layoff.

The attendance predictions were way off—1,831 people turned up to watch the demolition of Buxton. And we got £12,500 in prize money.