JOEL HARTLEY SECURES THRILLING 4-3 BORO VICTORY IN DYING SECONDS.

LINCOLN MOORLANDS 3 SCARBOROUGH ATHLETIC 4

It never ceases to amaze me that Joel Hartley is hardly given the starts that he deserves in the Boro team, once again he was the saviour after coming on as  a sub , and five minutes into injury time Joel scored the winning goal for Boro in a thrilling 4-3 victory. 

JOEL HARTLEY

Boro named an unchanged line up, meaning a place on the bench for new signing Nick McNamara.

The home side made the better start and Josh Schofield fired wide from a quickly taken corner, then Tom Woodhead made a great save from a header by Sean Cann.

After twenty minutes Boro broke the deadlock, Gary Hepples played a great through ball for Ryan Blott, his shot was turned behind for a corner by keeper Mario Riccardi, from the corner Law’s header was only half cleared by an under pressure Riccardi, the loose ball fell to Mike Gibson who fired home from close range.

Lincoln should have levelled soon after but Cann fired over after a great run by Nathan Adams, then Cann produced some wonderful control and a shot on the turn, but it was straight at Woodhead.

The first flash point of the game came after Riccardi dropped a shot by Blott then proceeded to fire the ball into the face of Boro’s forward, strangely he was only awarded a yellow card.

Soon after and out of the blue the home side levelled, a long ball from the back found Cann who despite looking well offside, was allowed to carry on and he easily rounded Woodhead to score.

Seven minutes into the second half, the home side took the lead, Frank Belt lost possession in a dangerous area, this allowed Cann the opportunity to carry the ball before netting via the post with Woodhead well beaten.

Boro should have levelled just after the hour mark, another great pass by Hepples released Law who rounded Riccardi, unluckily he was slightly off balance and his shot was cleared off the line by Adam Hewitt.

Soon after Boro brought on Hartley for Belt, and five minutes later Boro deservedly levelled, a long free kick was not cleared properly and Dunning ran onto the loose ball, before firing home from twenty yards.

Back came Lincoln and Woodhead produced a great save to prevent Cann from completing his hat trick, then Botham cleared off the line from the resulting corner.

Six minutes from time it looked as if Boro had finally settled this topsy-turvy game, when Chris Jenkinson rose like a salmon to majestically head a Dunning free kick into the top corner.

Three minutes later it was all square again, with the home team putting a lot of pressure on Boro's back line forcing four corners in quick succession, from one of these corners, the unfortunate Hepples headed past Woodhead at the near post.

In the last minute of injury time Blott decided to take the game by the scruff of the neck as he took on the Lincoln defence single handedly, he left four players in his wake and despite literally having the shirt ripped from his back, sent a powerful shot goalwards which was only parried by Riccardi and Joel was on hand to score and give victory to the Boro.