Lincoln City manager David Holdsworth has called for “radical changes” around the club’s footballing ethic, after the Imps’ latest defeat on Tuesday night.
Holdsworth’s first home game in charge saw City crash to a 2-1 defeat in the FA Cup Fourth Qualifying round replay at Sincil Bank, despite having taken the lead.
And City’s fourth manager in as many years felt the players only had themselves to blame for a loss that puts several questions over the club’s future in the conference.
“We haven’t got time to dwell on things,” Holdsworth said. “We’ve got to make radical changes to get ourselves in the position we are in.
“I think any manager would say, have we been beaten by real craft? No, we’ve beaten ourselves.
“Right now we’ve got a few too many soft touches and it’s been looming around this dressing room for a long time.
“We should take responsibility, and unfortunately this club has seen a lack of responsibility on the pitch and we got to change that ethic.”
City looked intent on the win at least in the first half, and it showed as they took the lead on 20 minutes through Sam Smith, who finished off some excellent play down the flanks from Gavin McCallum and Nicky Nicolau.
However, Alfreton were quick to respond and equalised through Anton Brown within seven minutes of going down.
Eventually it was young goalkeeper Nick Draper who was guilty of a second half error, bringing down Anthony Wilson in the box just on the hour mark.
Nathan Jarman slotted the resulting penalty home with ease, with Alfreton hanging on against a veritable barrage of City attacks to finish victorious and earn a first round clash against Carlisle United.
Holdsworth admitted the time for playing beautiful football was long gone for City, who are lying fourth from bottom in the Blue Square Bet Premier League, facing a clash against Barrow at the weekend.
“I’m not interested in a team of footballers,” he said. “Because right now we don’t need footballers; we need horrible, gritty and nasty people to start coming through that door and get on that pitch.
“If you’re nice, you get nowhere in football. I’m looking for men. And I can see why this club’s in this position.
“I’m not here to vilify anybody but I can see why we’ve conceded goals this season.”
Match Report: Lincoln City 1 – 2 Alfreton Town
Alfreton Town booked their place in the FA Cup first round proper with a come-from-behind 2-1 win against Lincoln City in their qualifying replay at Sincil Bank.
Sam Smith put the Imps ahead midway through the first half after an expert assist from Gavin McCallum, but Alfreton were on level terms through Anton Brown just seven minutes later.
And in a second half dominated by the visitors, Nathan Jarman fired home from the spot after keeper Nick Draper had brought down Anthony Wilson.
Alfreton hung on for the win, and will now face off against Carlisle United in the first round proper clash, scheduled to take place on the weekend of November 12.
Alfreton started the brighter of the two, their first chance a fourth-minute corner that flew dangerously across the box, but City were soon in their stride as Mitchell Nelson’s long throw from the right was headed over by Adam Watts.
The sides continued testing each other, with Alfreton’s Jake Moult sending a dangerous free kick over from the right that Smith did well to head away.
And Smith was in the thick of things yet again, this time to put city ahead on 20 minutes.
Quick feet from McCallum down the left saw him deliver an inch-perfect cross, Smith using his head to power past Dan Lowson in the Alfreton goal.
Alfreton responded as Nathan Jarman floated the ball in from the left but Moult could only head over.
However, the visitors had sniffed blood and on 27 minutes, Leigh Franks’ long throw saw Brown flick a near-post header over Draper to restore parity.
Draper then turned hero for City as he saved expertly from Theo Streete’s close-range attempt, before Alan Power was booked for a dangerous slide on Franks in the minutes leading up to half-time.
Alfreton had the first chance just after the restart as Anthony Wilson was fouled 25 yards out, but Jarman’s curling free-kick narrowly went wide.
Chances came thick and fast as Jordan Hall crossed beautifully for Streete but Draper saved the header comfortably, while McCallum twisted and turned before curling a left footer from 20 yards, only for an outstretched Lowson to make the save.
Alfreton were at last ahead on the hour mark as Wilson’s darting run was rudely halted by Draper in the box. The City keeper was subsequently booked and Jarman slotted the resultant penalty home with ease.
The visitors quickly put fresh legs into play, bringing on Josh Law and James Ellison to replace Franks and Wilson respectively, while City brought Francis Laurent back from the recovery list to replace Power, and Kyle Perry on for Nicky Nicolau.
Josh O’Keeffe then made way for Jamie Taylor, with just over nine minutes remaining and with City desperate for the equaliser, John Nutter’s 84th minute free-kick found Laurent but the header was superbly tipped over by Lowson.
Alfreton’s evening was slightly soured by Jake Moult’s second yellow for kicking the ball away, but it mattered little as the visitors finished victorious after the final whistle and the boos rang around Sincil Bank.
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A man in his 20s was seriously injured after a crash on the B1397 Old Spalding Road in Wigtoft near Boston over the weekend.
Emergency services were called to the scene of the crash involving one vehicle – a blue Hyundai iX35 – shortly after 11pm on Saturday, March 6. The crash is believed to have occurred between 9pm-11pm.
The driver was seriously injured and taken to hospital.
Lincolnshire Police are appealing for witnesses and would like to speak to anyone who captured dashcam footage of the incident.
Anyone with information should contact police on 101 or via email at [email protected] quoting incident 489 of March 6.
Alternatively, it can be reported through the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online here.
There have been 643 new coronavirus cases and 31 COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire so far this week – compared to 1,005 cases and 26 deaths by this time last week.
The government’s COVID-dashboard on Friday recorded 79 new cases in Lincolnshire, 28 in North East Lincolnshire and 23 in North Lincolnshire.
The latest data takes the total number of cases in Greater Lincolnshire to over 54,000.
On Friday, seven deaths were registered in Lincolnshire. These include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.
NHS England reported six new local hospital deaths – five at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and one at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals Trust. This brings the total of hospital deaths so far this week to 24, a rise from 11 last week.
National cases increased by 5,947 to 4,207,304, while deaths rose by 236 to 124,261.
Nationally, Office for National Statistics data shows that the number of coronavirus infections in the UK continued to fall.
In the seven days up to February 27, around 280,000 people were confirmed positive, a drop of about a third on the most recent date.
The latest R number – the number of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to – is between 0.7 and 0.9.
From Monday, care home residents will be allowed to have a regular indoor visitor as long as they take a coronavirus lateral flow test before entry and wear personal protective equipment (PPE).
Hugging and kissing their relatives will be forbidden, although hand holding will be permitted.
Elsewhere, meeting up with one other person outdoors – for example sitting together in a park with coffee, drink, or picnic, will also be permitted.
Further relaxation is hoped to happen from March 29, when the rule of six will again be allowed, along with outdoor sports facilities reopening and the stay at home rule ending.
In a press conference on Friday evening health secretary Matt Hancock welcomed the news that a mystery person in the UK infected with the COVID variant of concern first found in Brazil had now been traced.
He said the ‘unbreakable link’ between cases, hospitalisation and deaths was ‘being broken’ due to the vaccine rollout – but added testing still remains ‘critical’.
Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Friday, March 5
54,126 cases (up 130)
38,170 in Lincolnshire (up 79)
8,149 in North Lincolnshire (up 23)
7,807 in North East Lincolnshire (up 28)
2,105 deaths (up 7)
1,549 from Lincolnshire (up 7)
300 from North Lincolnshire (no change)
256 from North East Lincolnshire (no change)
of which 1,244 hospital deaths (up six)
772 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (up five)
41 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)
1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)
A Boston man who amassed a collection of thousand of illegal images after becoming addicted to downloading child abuse images was jailed at Lincoln Crown Court on Friday.
Howard Angel was arrested after police raided his home and took away a laptop computer.
Tony Stanford, prosecuting, said that the following day Angel went to Grantham Police Station and confessed.
“He said he had been stupid. He was interviewed. He was relatively frank. He said he wanted help.
“He said ‘I shouldn’t have done it but I did’. He said he became addicted and hooked on it.”
Mr Stanford said that later Angel’s then wife handed police a second laptop which she found in the attic.
When police examined the two laptops they found that Angel had been accessing child abuse images for nine years.
A total of 16,944 illegal images of children were on the devices including 2,641 in the most serious category.
Angel, 59, of Wyberton West Road, Boston, admitted three charges of making indecent images of children between March 2010 and May 2019.
He was jailed for 10 months and given a 15 year sexual harm prevention order. He was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
Recorder Charles Falk, passing sentence, told him: “What tips the balance here is the length of time you have been offending which is nine years.
“That and the fact that this is a very large collection makes this a case that is so serious that only immediate custody can be justified.”
Michael Cranmer-Brown, in mitigation, said that Angel had lost everything as a result of what he did.
“When this came to light his world was turned upside down. He had been in a marriage for over 20 years. He has children. He has effectively been rejected by them all.
“He has been kicked out of his family home and he is now divorced from his wife. In addition he has suffered the loss of his job. Having disclosed to his employer about his conviction he has been sacked.”
Mr Cranmer-Brown said that since his arrest Angel has sought help and urged that he should not receive an immediate prison sentence.
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