Chapter 7 – A star is born

On September 26th we host Lincoln fifth in the standings. Not an easy match, but after two wins in three games it would be important to line up two straight wins. The match remains in balance, but at ’72 we go under and we are not able to equalize. Ormondroyd as attacking midfilder is too far from the goal. Mainwaring plays a good half an hour without producing much. We are playing every three days and therefore on the following Saturday we go to play at York. It ends in a goleada, all the attackers score, Harsley even signs twice and Preece is MoM. Mainwaring also scores his first goal as senior player. We are now back to 13th position.
The following game on the group of the Windscreen Shield trophy takes place on the following Wednesday and we play against Preston, a second division’s team. Due the lower importance of the tournament compared to the championship, I make some changes: I place Hope in place of Wilcox and Mainwaring from the beginning to team up with Harsley. We dominate the match and above all Mainwaring scored both the goals in the final 2-0. A star is born? The next match is on Mansfield. After the break, I put Ormondroyd back in the middle of the attack with Harsley and I keep Walker in midfield opting for a classic 4-4-2. After 2 minutes, Ormondroyd was injured and it was therefore up to Mainwaring to take his place. We win 2-1 with Mainwaring’s decisive goal, the MoM, however, is Colgan. Third victory in a row between all the competitions above all 5 victories in the last 7 matches and tenth position in the standings close to the playoffs area. Does the turning point has finally come?

Theoretically the calendar is good: we have 4 home games in a row and with we could really put in a good pace and stay in a good ranking position. The first is against the penultimate Rotherham and therefore designated victim. We go under almost immediately, Harsley equalized in the 70th minute but 5 minutes later Walker committed the most classic of own goals and instead of three easy points we ended up with nothing at all: 1-2. Three days later, it was Brighton current at the seventh place. Game of great balance like the one with Rotherham and also here we go below, we come back with Ormondroyd but it is not enough and we suffer a 2-1 defeat in the final. The third match is against Shrewsbury sixth in the standings. It ends up 1-1 with the opposing goalkeeper taking 9 as rating! On the positive side, Mainwaring still hits the goal. The latest in the home game series is against Swansea above us by a couple of points in the standings. It is almost the same as in the other matches: it ends 0-1 after having also some good opportunities, probably 1-1 would have been a fairer result but their goalkeeper Jones is MoM. So after one point in four games we find ourselves back in 13th place in the standings. Shit!!!