Day 250

My iMac tried for a little apocalypse of its own today. I had finished the blog entry (we won 2-0 the first time round) and was just waiting for the game to finish processing the day so I could save and exit. Nearly an hour later, it finally finished (normally this would take a few minutes, tops). But before I could do anything, the computer froze. I got a kernel panic. It rebooted automatically…into a spinning beach ball of death. I manually rebooted. It wouldn’t start. I cycled the power (pull the plug, wait a few minutes). There’s some life left in this beast after all. Here’s take two of Day 250. If this happens again, I’m throwing in the towel. Too much pain, too much angst, and too much time (I lost the best part of four hours to this crap tonight).

Salomon Olembé returned to the side today after missing eight games with a twisted ankle. His match fitness was in a sorry state, but I desperately needed a left winger. I put him in from the start, intending on subbing him off towards the end of the match—whenever he looked to be running out of juice. Samba Kanouté also returned, after being rested for the previous game, but the rest of the team was unchanged from the side that lost in the closing stages to Fleetwood four days ago (through an own goal, of all things).

The pre-match ticker reminded us of the stakes both teams had riding on victory: “Lincoln hold their fate in their own hands, and know that they will clinch the Blue Square Bet Premier title if they win their remaining fixtures; By winning the forthcoming fixture, York can move up to 7th in the table and will hope to leapfrog Fleetwood.” It’s make or break for them and the title to lose for us.

We had a point to prove after the loss to Fleetwood, and my players came out flying. They fought hard for every ball and put York under serious pressure after just five minutes. Marques looped a header from the edge of the six-yard box inches over the bar. Then two minutes later Olembé rifled a shot in from the edge of the area, putting us one goal up.

Barnes-Homer doubled the lead in the 18th minute. Koroma showed great pace to craft the chance from Woods’s lofted pass, then squared the ball to his strike partner—whose venomous shot went in off the underside of the bar.

Assistant Manager Martin O’Connor cautioned that the gap between our midfield and attack was too large, reducing the effectiveness of our passing and leaving the strikers stranded at times. I moved Chris Birchall from a defensive to supporting duty in his deep-lying playmaker role at the centre of the midfield. It didn’t appear to alter the statistics I was watching—pass completion percentages and overall possession—but O’Connor seemed happy with the change.

We had some nervous moments in the closing moments of the first half, as York twice looked like scoring, but we were two up at the interval.

Olembé needed treatment on the sidelines on the hour mark. His condition plummeted, but he got the all-clear to continue. I prayed he wasn’t carrying an injury. I subbed him off 18 minutes later as a precaution.

In the meantime, he earned us a penalty. Jon Challinor impeded the winger when he tried to get on the end of a cross from Koroma. The referee called foul. Substitute Jean-François Christophe fired the penalty into the top-left corner, giving us an unassailable three-goal lead with twelve minutes to play.

Olembé received man of the match honours for his stellar display, while the team as a whole was very impressive. The Cameroonian winger more than did his job, bringing balance to the team and incisiveness to the left wing that culminated in two goals. I’m delighted with his contribution, and doubly pleased to see that he’s not injured.

Mansfield did their title campaign significant damage by dropping points at home to Bath—their 3-0 defeat leaves them six points adrift, with an impossible deficit in goal difference. Eight games to go.