Harrogate 2 Imps 3 Nicky Wright Wright Wright!

Nick Wright, our new acquisition from Mansfield Town hit a hat-trick within the first half hour, at Harrogate Town, as the Imps attacking endeavours continue to enthral and entertain. For the benefit of visiting Town fans first the teams & schemes then the match report

thanks for reading Neil Gentleman-Hobbs.

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Harrogate 2  Lincoln City 3

H/t 0-3

scorers Wright 3 Hall, Woods

Att 256 (approx 130 Imps)

The Teams & Schemes

Farman

Sheridan    Boyce    Foster  Newton

Fofana    Nolan

Power    Rowe    Yussuf

Wright

****

substitutions

H/T  Dixon for Wright,  H/T Fairhurst for Yussuf, On 65 Robinson on for Boyce (Mo to C/H, Power into sitting role and Connor to the right)

Harrogate

MacGillivray

Samuels, Merris, Bolder, Franks,

Killock, Worsfold, Brown, Wright, Nelthorpe

Woods,

****

Subs

Clayton, Hall, Beesley, Garbutt, Cook, Jones, Metcalfe, Nowakowski, Hardy

*****

To the game Footy fans to the game……………..

A glorious overlap from assist king Newton saw him send over a beauty for Wright to smash home off the underside of the bar. The Imps were a goal up with just 43 seconds on the clock, a lead they would double just 5 minutes later.  Rowe, such an eye for a killer pass, split the centre-backs with a superb slide-rule ball and whippet Wright was there to thunder an unstoppable drive into the top corner.

The cohesive counter attacking formation was running riot, with passing and movement not seen in red and white since the days of John Schofield at the very least. Rowe is a dervish, Sheridan and Newton are keen to get forward, but Power Rowe and Yussuf stretch the elasticity of the opposition to the limit. No surprise that Wright would plunder again.

This one was born of the pace and timing that true goal machines have in their locker. Nick nipped in, negating the offside, to take it under his spell, round  keeper Macgilliuray to side- foot home with malice.

Simmo made a double substitution at half-time with Fairhurst (returning gingerly from injury) and Dixon replacing Yussuf and Wright.  Given the injuries to the defence (no Brown, Miller Gray & Boyce carrying a thigh strain) the manager perhaps wants to wrap his forwards in cotton wool.  Losing Yussuf and Wright certainly took a bit of pace off and let Harrogate, fresh from a half-time tongue lashing, back into the game.

Harrogate who have paid for three of their summer acquisitions and invested heavily again, flew from the traps a different side. They exploited the drop in pace and were able to close down the Imps down. Nelthorpe, the ex-Trinity schemer flailed the flank and delivered a quite sublime cross for Hall to head home. Then Woods (once a £5m Chelsea signing from Leeds) converted a well crafted canter and cross from Hardy.

After the second the bench tightened, things, but to his credit the manager added the pace and attacking joie de vivre, that is Connor Robinson.   Fofana moved to centre back, Power took on the sitting midfield role and Connor moved to the right of the advanced midfield trio.  From the centre Power settled the side into a keep ball ploy to extract the sting. At one stage the Imps strung together a 30 pass move and closed out the game more comfortably than the scoreline suggested.

Harrogate are a good side and could well be in our Division by the end of the season if they can split AFC Telford and Stockport. Both are paying out ‘big money’ with budgets bigger than the Mighty Imps.  Ex-Imp Simon Weavers side had drawn 0-0 against Championship Barnsley on Saturday, so to bang in three is very credible indeed.

The pre-season, when put in context, is shaping up well.  No one was expecting us to be anything more than competitive in a serious test against Chesterfield, the Spireites are very much contenders for League 2 promotion. Having beaten us 3-1 they have subsequently avoided defeat against two Championship Huddersfield (won 2-1) and Forest (1-1), who have also just taken dear old Jack Hobbs on a loan cum 3 year deal. Saturday will see a very different test at Grantham, a side full of tough 6 foot plus lads. But that is just the shape we will face in the opener at Woking, so it is a wise test, even if the injuries are mounting up.