Nippy Nathan seals perfect Taylor tribute
NathaN arnold scored a dramatic late winner to send non-league lincoln City into the Fa Cup fourth round for the first time since the late graham taylor’s team of 1976.
On a night when taylor was honoured by the club where he cut his managerial teeth, the class of 2017 could not have paid him a better tribute against a side ranked three divisions and 59 places above them.
Dominant lincoln missed chances through theo robinson, luke Waterfall, alex Woodyard and matt rhead but were rewarded in the 90th minute when substitute adam marriott threaded a ball to arnold.
he remained the coolest person inside the stadium to round goalkeeper Dean gerken and win the tie.
Winning manager Danny Cowley said: ‘We spoke about graham taylor in the week. i watched a documentary about him after he died and i reminded myself of what he’d done at this club and others.
‘in terms of atmosphere, this was the greatest experience during my time here and one that everyone connected with lincoln will remember for a long time.’
the high emotion at the final whistle was spontaneous and genuine as a fair proportion of the 9,000 full house ran on to the sincil Bank pitch to celebrate.
many of those supporters had held up the spotlight on their phones in the 76th minute as a tribute to taylor, who also won promotion in 1976, and it seemed to inspire lincoln to one last surge.
‘ i’m embarrassed,’ admitted beaten manager mick mcCarthy, whose side have now been knocked out at the third round for the seventh consecutive season.
‘it would have been bad enough in front of nine thousand fans here but for millions to be watching live on television makes it even worse.’
mcCarthy is a fighter but even he must fear for his job now, having failed to learn the lessons from the 2-2 draw at Portman road in the first tie.
lincoln are no mugs, top of the National league with one defeat in 22 matches and big-match players like arnold, who scored the winning goal for grimsby when they won promotion to the Football league at Wembley in may.
after emotional applause for taylor before kick-off, ipswich’s plan to try and silence the crowd worked reasonably well for half an hour until robinson — who scored twice at Portman road — turned sharply and forced a goal-saving block by Paul Digby.
after that, a rush of chances came. top scorer rhead just failed to bury a header at the far post while skipper Waterfall was denied by an excellent tip around the post from gerken.
as for ipswich, they hardly managed a shot on goal with tom lawrence, their own two-goal hero in the first game, starved of service.
the second-half tribute to taylor gave the home side new impetus despite mcCarthy, growing more frustrated by the minute in the technical area, throwing on Freddie sears in search of a goal.
ipswich were on the attack when lincoln forced the counter-attack and arnold fulfilled his partner’s dream by converting from eight yards.
‘my missus had a dream we won 1-0 and i scored the goal. my experience allowed me to keep a cool head for the goal,’ he said.
the celebrations will live long in the memory for those jaded by the exploits of superstars such as Dimitri Payet and Diego Costa in this season’s transfer window.
Cowley, a former schoolteacher, won’t want to be described as the new graham taylor but his team certainly personify the same spirit. they gave everything playing in one of the country’s football backwaters.
Cowley said: ‘it frightens me that people will fall out of love with football because the supporters can be disconnected from the big clubs. i enjoy this level as you still have a connection with the people.’
taylor couldn’t have put it better.