So on a cold and blustery day at the Park, City miss the opportunity to virtually guarantee promotion to League One in front of stand splitting 8544 supporters by drawing 2-2 with Morecambe. City lined up: Jones; Edwards, Taylor, Archibald-Henville; Moxey, Cozic, Gill, Harley, Sercombe; McAllister, Fleetwood.

 

The game started with the visitors having the better of the opening exchanges with a number of clear chances before taking the lead in the eighth minute in somewhat fortuitous circumstances. Cozic appeared to win the ball cleanly on the right touchline, but the ref deemed it a foul and a dangerous one at that, booking Bertie in the process. The free kick was swung in and giant midfielder Stewart Drummond found himself completely unmarked six yards out where he had the simplest task of nodding past Jones to make it 1-0 to Morecambe.

 

Straight away though City looked to make amends with Sercombe cutting in from the right and beating two defenders before dragging his low shot wide of the near post. A minute later some clever Gill trickery on the right saw him hang the ball up to McAllister on the edge of the six yard box. Unfortunately he couldn't get any power on his header and gave the keeper an easy collect.

 

The majority of the crowd thought we'd equalised midway through the half when Harley bent a vicious free kick around the wall and towards the near post from 25 yards out, but sadly it missed the post by inches and cannoned off the net stanchion at the back of the goal instead.

 

Bertie had a great chance to level things with five minutes of the half remaining but screwed a poor clearance past the far post from the edge of the box, then on the stroke of half time Fleetwood expertly laid off a corner to Harley but his 20 yard daisy cutter was woefully underhit straight to the keeper.

 

The second half began with Cozic being substituted for Logan, presumably as Bertie had a yellow card hanging over him, and also as a sign that Tis meant business in the search for an equaliser by playing three up front. It immediately paid dividends as with a mere four minutes on the clock Deano exchanged passes with Fleetwood on the edge of the box before sitting the keeper on his backside then sidestepping him to nonchalantly roll the ball into an empty net. Morecambe complained furiously about it being offside, but it wasn't Deano who was offside, and the alleged miscreant had nothing to do with the move either so the goal stood and we all went delirious instead!

 

City tails were well and truly up and we pressed on for further goals - Deano's deep cross to Logan then saw the ball nodded into the path of Fleetwood but he blasted his shot high onto the Bank. No matter, as in the eighth minute City's industry was rewarded with them taking the lead in fine fashion. Harley collected the ball wide on the left, and with everyone expecting a cross, he drilled a ferocious low drive past the keeper and just inside the near post to make it 2-1 to City with the place exploding into deafening celebrations and making it a quite remarkable turnaround from the poor first half showing.

 

Three minutes later Morecambe thought they'd equalised, but the goal was disallowed for a handball during the build up, and the fact that none of the Morecambe players complained showed the ref had got the decision right. A couple of minutes later the ball was back up the Morecambe end when Sercombe set off on a lightning break before sending Fleetwood away. However, as players piled into the box Fleetwood took it on by himself and blasted wastefully over the bar.

 

Midway through the half Sercombe showed mazy skills down the right, nutmegging the full back for good measure before crossing to the far post. Unfortunately Harley couldn't steer his header goalwards and butted the wrong side of the post. On the half hour it was City's turn to have a goal chalked off after Logan turned in Deano's 30 yard fizzer, but Logie was miles offside when Deano let fly so once again the ref made the right call.

 

Fleetwood then held the ball up superbly before releasing Gill to surge into the box, but just as a goal looked likely, the run was ended with a perfectly timed challenge right on the edge of the six yard area. City's agony was further compounded by Morecambe taking the ball straight up the other end and winning a free kick just outside the area. The ball was whipped in in rather the same fashion as their opening goal, and also in the same fashion it was Drummond again who nipped in to steer the ball confidently past Jones while the defence stood and watched to make it 2-2 with a little over ten minutes to go.

 

Panther was introduced at the expense of McAllister towards the end of the game, and then deep into injury time Sercombe had the final chance of the game sending an audacious 35 yard lob narrowly over the bar.

 

And thus the chance for almost certain automatic promotion was gone. Had Bury lost at Gillingham and not drawn then a win for City would have seen us promoted with a game to go, but as it was it's how you were with the only thing decided being Brentford's promotion as League Two champions.

 

As for the players, had it been on today's performance then Jones would certainly not have been voted player of the season, but everyone's entitled to a bad day at the office and this was Jones'. In front of him the defence looked fairly assured, however both goals should really have been dealt far better, but on the whole they didn't look too troubled.

 

In midfield it was no real surprise that Matt Gill was the pick of the bunch - despite Deano being voted Man of the Match - as he distributed the ball with customary ease and skill, and up front it proved a tricky task for the two forwards to have any real impact on the game. This changed with the introduction of Logan at half time, although it wouldn't surprise me to see City start with exactly the same line up and formation next week at Rotherham.

 

Speaking of which, what a truly massive game that has turned out to be. On points earned this season they should be right up there with us, but a 17 point deduction at the start of the season put paid to any hopes of promotion for them this season. However, and despite their 3-0 tonking yesterday, the game next weekend is far from being a gimme, and with Bury finishing up with a home match against Accrington we have to at the very least match their result to avoid having to go through the lottery of the play-offs.

 

But if we do have to do it the long way round then so be it. The lads have proven their mettle in this situation before, so it should hold no fears for either them or us, the supporters, but all things considered I think we'd all rather getting it done and dusted next Saturday. So with that in mind, good luck to everyone making the trip, and I hope you won't mind me saying that hopefully that's it from me this season!