Plenty to be optimistic about: Wimbledon 1-0 Imps

So we’re out of the FA Cup, no more talk of Burnley, Arsenal or Ipswich. I daren’t look at social media first-hand at the moment, I fear it will be full of comments about a lack goals and desperate first round elimination.

I’m in a minibus writing this and I can hear the negative stuff that has been said. Maybe I’m alone, but I’m actually not that gutted. In fact, I’m quite positive.

This afternoon we matched a League One side for eighty minutes and once Matt Rhead came on we looked dangerous. The facts don’t lie, we didn’t score a goal, but I felt for the first time in several games we actually might.

I’ll start with the obvious negative, their goal. It was atrocious defending, the sort of slip you cannot make against the likes of Lyle Taylor. He finished with aplomb and for a few moments everything felt very negative. 1-0 down at Wimbledon after seven minutes with both Taylor and Cody McDonald looking dangerous as anything. I feared a ride home full of despondancy and disappointment.

Then, we started to play. It wasn’t scintillating, it wasn’t penetrating, but it was us giving it a good go. Michael Bostwick, the undoubted man of the match, bossed the midfield. Nathan looked dangerous when we did get him on the ball. We had two chances, perhaps half chances, but we looked as though we might claw our way back into the game.

Yes, we were toothless when it dropped in the final third, but the other two thirds of the pitch belonged to us. At half time most of the people around me identified the problem and they all agreed on what it was.

Ollie Palmer and Matt Green play virtually independent of each other. Green was often asked to track back and help defend whilst Palmer wandered around up front looking to win headers against defenders considerably shorter than him. More often than not, he failed.

Also, Billy Knott couldn’t get into the game. Since his dismissal at Meadow Lane he hasn’t captured his early season promise, despite his desperation to do well. We huffed, we puffed but we didn’t blow their defence down. After Lyle Taylor went off, they stopped knocking on our door too.

The second half was completely different, we came out full of purpose and energy, looking for the opening that might get us back into the game. Sean Long and Neal Eardley pushed on well, Wimbledon began to sit off us and it looked as though the chances might come.

The golden opportunity fell to Billy Knott and unfortunately he fluffed his lines. Their keeper, dodgy at the best of times, found himself in no-mans land. He came onto the ball with a gaping goal, a Billy full of confidence would have buried it. Instead, he took a touch, slipped and the chance was gone. It felt as though that was it, that was our one opportunity to get back into the game. It was the best chance we had, but not the last.

Everything changed when the big man came on. Rheady has something more than the average player, he has a presence and attitude that sparks belief. From the moment he entered the fray we looked as though we might get a goal.

He dropped into the hole allowing Matt Green to get forward and in doing so we suddenly looked to have a viable route to goal. It resulted in a shot on target for Green, not the goal we needed but a chance to get ahead. Green was then hauled down in the box, a clear penalty all day long but one that wasn’t given. Maybe he should have gone down quicker, maybe he is too honest, but for whatever reason it wasn’t given. Again, there was another chance.

I felt we remained undeterred, stoic in our method and invigorated with the arrival of Rhead. If we could deliver a decent corner into the box we might have bagged a goal or two, but it wasn’t to be. Despite dominating the second half, genuinely controlling the play in my eyes, we couldn’t find the breakthrough. However, I didn’t feel it was just ‘more of the same’ from the Crawley game. We created half-chances and more than matched a League One side.

I’ll blog properly about my whole day tomorrow, hopefully when I’m sat at a computer and not on the back seat of a mini-bus, but I had to address the negativity I know is circulating on social media. Remember, Lincoln City has never really been about FA Cup quarter finals, it’s barely been about second round matches in my time. Usually a draw pitching us away at a League One club would result in gutless elimination, no brave battle and no matching them all over the park. Okay, the outcome is ultimately the same, but it is difficult to be too down-hearted after our display.

Yes, there is work to do. Yes, we need to start scoring, but unlike last Saturday I felt we created a couple of chances and gave Wimbledon a scare. It’s on to Crewe next weekend where a performance similar to today will see us grab all three points. I just hope Danny gets the team sheet out now, right now, and writes the name ‘Matt Rhead’ next to ‘Matt Green’, because we look far better with the big man on than not.