Revisiting Championship Manager 01/02 – Lincoln City – March Review

March needed to be better than February if we had any hopes of promotion. Leyton Orient rocked into town and were absolutely battered as we hit our relentless best! All is well in the world again after being 4-1 up at halftime and finishing as 5-1 victors. The suit was out again for the post-match press conference with the only difficulty being containing my excitement!

Youth product Charlie Trout would make his debut as an 88th-minute substitute for the returning Justin Walker. The reason I mention this is that 20 or so years later Trout must have used all that he learned from me when taking an unusual route into management with the Puerto Rico national team.

Away from the pitch, Paul Morgan is requesting a new contract. The centre-back hasn’t yet established himself as a regular starter but wants £170 a week so it’s a deal done! With the contract signed, Morgan was on the bench for the defeat to Torquay which left us one point clear of the chasing pack in the playoffs. The Northern Irishman was in the starting lineup in our home match against Macclesfield as Shaun Derry was injured. 

Three minutes in and Morgan is sent off, leaving me cursing the ridiculous amount we have agreed to pay him for the next four years! Thankfully, his teammates dug him out of a hole with a superb 4-0 win over fourth-place Macc. Big Tony Battersby, Paiva, Walker and Sedgemore were the scorers keeping the three points at Sincil Bank. 

A trip to rivals Scunthorpe United came after a 10-day break. Ben Sedgemore was injured and Charlie Trout was forced to start in the three-man midfield. The squad was looking very thin and the five-man bench consisted of a goalkeeper, a striker, two left-backs and a centre-back – not ideal! Absolutely not ideal when you go 2-0 down and lose your Portuguese wonderkid to an injury all within 35 minutes, meaning the previously unused David Cameron was forced into action.

Scunthorpe boasted the in-form Trevor Benjamin, a loan signing from Leicester City, experienced striker Don Goodman in their starting lineup and Peter Beagrie on the bench ready to provide a bit of width on the left! It was Goodman and Benjamin who gave The Iron a 2-0 lead before super-sub Cameron got us back into the game. Goodman and his wonderful hair annoyingly put the home side again after an hour. I was truly on the edge of the coach for this one and Richard Logan’s 80th-minute strike was met with sheer delight! One dampener was the news that Paiva would be absent for three weeks.

The month came to an end with two disappointing defeats that couldn’t have come at a worse time in terms of securing the much sought-after top-seven spot. Cameron would score again in a truly dismal display at home to Plymouth Argyle as we were dismissed 3-1 by the invading Pilgrims. This was followed by a slightly better performance at Gay Meadow as we succumbed to a 1-0 reverse against Shrewsbury.

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