A tale of two halves for Chris Sarginson at Gresty Road this afternoon.
In the first half, Chris obviously remembered that it was the season to be jolly, and the cards stayed firmly in the pocket, as I hoped they would. One leading-with-the-arm lunge by the big Lincoln No 29 certainly justified a card, but the Crewe player dusted himself down and play continued with nothing more than a word in the ear. At one point, the Crewe manager got very hot under the collar about something and started waving his arms at the 4O Danny Gratton, but I couldn't see what had caused him to flip like that.
The second half was completely different, beginning with Crewe taking an early and deserved but unexpected lead against the table toppers. Tackles started flying in and squabbles developed, and at one point, Chris seemed to lose the plot and yellow cards began to be waved. Danny was kept busy on the touchline as both managers waded into the fray. Then Crewe scored a controversial second, with the Lincoln players running to the AR on the far side (? Dave Benton), presumably because they thought a Crewe player was offside, although I couldn't see who that could be. Tempers frayed, Crewe slowed the game down, the game was punctuated with several substitutions and injuries, and six added minutes became eight, during which time Lincoln scored, and it was a very nervy last few minutes for Crewe to survive before Chris brought proceedings to a close for a deserved but unexpected win for the home side.
A mixed bag from Chris to be honest, and I've certainly seen better at Gresty Road in recent times.