You prioritise competitions, we’ll prioritise winning games

The 3-1 Checkatrade Trophy win might be in a so-called underwhelming competition, but it brings with it another small piece of history, something else to help build the positivity and morale around the club.

I accept that a win in the league would be far better, but a team should play every game to win. Danny Cowley doesn’t give any competition so much priority that he’ll risk being eliminated, and tonight he fielded the same sort of side that faced Rotherham in the Carabao Cup. There were no young players such as Ellis Chapman, not even a start for keeper Josh Vickers. Danny went to win the game, using his squad, and win it he did.

I don’t subscribe to the theory teams in our league are happy to earmark certain games as low priority. It doesn’t matter if a fan has paid £10 or £50 to watch their team, they want to see them win and managers should respect that. Danny always offers the value for money, giving the paying fan belief that he is going to win the game, and that it is winning games at all costs and any level that motivates Lincoln City. Winning games is catching, it lubricates the wheels of an effective and confident set of players, building the players belief and confidence.

I don’t think you could tell Ollie Palmer (pictured top) that it was a low-priority game, allegedly barracked by the home fans tonight and responding with a goal. I don’t think you could tell Matt Green that either, applauded by fans of the club he was frozen out of, and later scoring against the manager that pushed him out. I don’t think you could tell Mansfield’s bench it was low-priority by they way they ungraciously refused to shake Nicky Cowley’s hand after the game. Despite the 617 boycott, you couldn’t tell the remaining 900 fans that travelled the victory meant nothing. After all, we’re back in our familiar position at the top of the league, albeit the group stages of the Football League Trophy.

What about Elliott Whitehouse? I’m sure it was a priority for him, aching to get a kick after a limited start to the season. He fell down the pecking order significantly this summer with the arrival of Bostwick and Knott, I’m pretty sure he attached a lot of importance to his well-taken goal. Sam Habergham, returning after a torrid summer, will also have prioritised the match.

I’m labouring on a point here. In professional football there is no such thing as ‘not prioritising’ a match, nor is there any dignity to be restored by claiming you only put your reserve squad out. That is like a five year old losing at a computer game and claiming he ‘wasn’t really trying’ to win the game afterwards. Those so-called Mansfield Town reserves are players not released in the summer, or brought in over the summer. It matters not they’ve played less football than some others, they should still be a capable and able team. Elliott Whitehouse hasn’t had much football, Luke Waterfall didn’t start the season and Rob Dickie isn’t in the side at present. Ollie Palmer is on the fringes, Harry Anderson is effectively a reserve at the moment, and Sam hasn’t kicked a football competitively since April. So your reserve squad couldn’t beat our fringe players and a few first teamers? There is no comfort to take from that, nor is there a great amount of truth.

Mansfield played well for half an hour tonight, a third of the game. My man at the ground tells me Alfie Potter looked dangerous, as did Jimmy Spencer, and Omari Sterling-James looked a handful too. However, Lincoln upped the tempo with some of the fringe players seizing their chance. Harry Anderson caused all sorts of trouble, Ollie Palmer gave a committed display up front and Billy Knott oozed class in the middle of the park. You know how many games those three players have started in the league this season? None. In fact five of our starting eleven tonight have not started a league game for City. Five. Of Mansfield’s team, seven hadn’t started a game. Of Lincoln’s non-starters, two did start our League Cup game, as did two of Mansfield’s. Not exactly reserves versus first team, is it?

Tonight was the first Football League Trophy game Lincoln City have won since November 2003, when Gary Taylor Fletcher scored an extra time winner against Chesterfield to wrap up a thrilling game 4-3.  For 14 years we’ve suffered the indignity of a 5-2 defeat at home to Hartlepool, 1-0 defeat away at Conference side Halifax, penalty defeats against Grimsby and Leicester after 0-0 draws, and even a defeat that cost a manager his job, 1-0 at Darlington. Peter Jackson was fired the day after that match, despite giving Sam Clucas his only Imps start. This might be a Mickey Mouse competition, but when we last won in it I was 25, and I’m now staring down the barrel of 40.

I’m not claiming this is a result to change our season or anything like that, obviously I’d rather we lost here and won in the league, but what’s to say that this ‘winning games’ thing can’t become a habit like last season? Who’s to dampen down a fine victory over local rivals in front of vocal support, just because the actual competition is badly organised, clumsy and laced with ill-feeling and ominous under-current? Not me, we just beat Mansfield 3-1. I’d be happy if it was the under-15’s that had won, or our fans team.

The second half was a clinical and organised performance from City, and contrary to some people the Mansfield side were tough and disciplined opposition. City though controlled play, perhaps the weakest player in the pitch was Jordan Maguire-Drew. He’s drawing some criticism from the fans at present, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him have a spell on the bench, just to alleviate some of the pressure. I wouldn’t want to see another Tom Champion situation, and like To,. Jordan is keeping a fan favourite out of the side. Champion pushed Lee Beevers on to the bench and the irked some fans, and now JMD is keeping Harry Anderson on the side lines. I wonder if it might be that Harry starts against Luton to give JMD a chance to impress from the bench and regain confidence.

It was also interesting to see Woodyard and Bostwick operating in the holding role with both Knott and Whitehouse accommodated. Knott is an insane talent, full of tricks and vision. He offers something different to anyone else in this squad, maybe even in League Two. As for Elliott, he’s labelled as a midfield man at city, but I think he has more of the centre forward in him. His aerial ability is probably better than Ollie Palmer and he’s a few inches shorter. The game gave Danny a chance to look at different patterns and approaches, and it is fair to say at 3-1 they paid off.

Of course he had to conduct most of it from the stands, but trust me he will have even gotten some value out of that. He’ll see more up there than he can on the touchline, and I bet he’s already one step ahead of watching the match back on tape. However, if his sending off is for abusing the official, he might find himself sat in there for another game or two. It depends if he was officially sent off, or just sent to the stands. A red card could attract a touchline ban, so he might be offered further opportunity to get a different view in the next couple of weeks.

So the curtain closes on another one of those annoying ‘first win since’ statistics. We see the end of round one of ‘the great Checkatrade trophy’ debate too, although I’m sure we’ll have plenty more as the season progresses. I’ve tipped City to at least get to the semi-finals this season, given Danny’s desire to win matches, and with an attendance of just over 2400 it was the night’s best attended game, with the 890 visitors the highest number of travelling fans by some distance. For some that will be a source of shame, for others a source of pride.

I don’t care, we won 3-1 and I didn’t mention you-know-who by name at all. Tonight wasn’t about him, it was about us. It was about Lincoln City winning another game. That’s two in a row, now bring on the Hatters and let’s see where we really are as a team.

Thanks to Graham Burrell for the pictures