Day 30

The Reserves played a friendly match against Altrincham today. I sent all the first-team players needing match fitness to join them. The extra experience and ability of the first-team hand-me-downs pushed them over the line. Lincoln Reserves beat the Altrincham first team, which plays only one division below Lincoln, 2-1.

I was delighted to see Conal Platt and Simon Russell amongst the top performers. These two are first in line for a starting berth if Alan Power or Chris Shuker, respectively, are unavailable. Man of the match was sixteen-year-old Luke Weaver, who evidently played out of his skin (he's not very good).

Kanouté played another game for the Mali Under 20s in their World Cup campaign. They lost; he played neither well nor poorly. Their next opponent is France. I doubt they'll get anything out of that, which means I should have Kanouté available soon—Mali Under 20s will likely finish third in their group, knocking them out of the competition.