Breathe with me: Imps 1-0 Yeovil

I enjoyed listening to the Prodigy at half time. Losing Keith Flint this week felt like a bit of a gut punch, it’s a stark reminder of how fragile not only life is, but also your own mental state. We’re all only one jarring incident or bit of bad news away from a big fall. It should put football into perspective, but what it did for me was to remind me to enjoy the things I enjoy because you just never know. 

Back to the game and the lyrics of my favourite hit, Breathe, never seemed more apt; “Breathe the pressure, Come play my game, I’ll test ya.” We were being tested and I’m not sure about breathing the pressure, but I’m damn sure I was excreting it through several damp areas of my body.

I did think the first two minutes of the second half could have brought a penalty after Bolger was bundled over from an early corner. The linesman had a good view of it but didn’t make the call, but had we done it at the other end I would have breathed a sigh of relief.

From there we began to exert our own pressure, Harry came out like a man possessed and finally started to get some joy down in front of us. He’s an instinctive player, give him time to think and he doesn’t do as well as when he just has to run with it. His smart drive brought a decent save, with Michael O’Connor’s header also bringing a stop. We were edging our way in, tentatively and not exactly rampaging, but you could sense something would happen.

It was the change in the 67th minute that switched the game. Rheady came off after drifting out of the match and Danny Rowe came on, instantly bringing the change of emphasis. That wasn’t by accident, the game plan all along was surely to tire them for an hour or so and then hit them with pace and direct running. As soon as we did that, the game changed. Yeovil couldn’t cope with our attacking threat, not after the gruelling time the big man had given them, whether he won his headers or not.

67 minutes, change. 69 minutes, 1-0 City.

Rowe was involved, his neat ball to Harry set the 22-year-old up to deliver another teasing cross and finally, someone got their head onto the ball. Mark O’Hara, who’d had a decent game in the middle of the park, glanced the ball into the back of the net.

The place erupted, like taking the lid off a shaken up bottle of Cherry Pepsi Max. The pressure had been building, the atmosphere bubbling under the surface and threatening to break out one way or another. The moaners and groaners had their time, the vocal support had theirs and everything teetered on the brink of tipping, one way or the other. As the net rippled thanks to the Scot’s goal, it went to way of positivity and relief.

That immediately prompted Yeovil to bring on forwards Alex Fisher and Francois Zoko. They knew now all the time-wasting and negativity was in vain and they had to get at us. Sadly, for them, they just don’t have the quality we have and it was a futile gesture. Now, it was our turn to drag our heels, our turn to gesture to ball boys to leave the bloody thing alone, to let it roll under our feet when knocked back for a throw in. 

It’s an amusing aspect of the beautiful game, watching a team who have been dragging their heels all evening suddenly up their game, but similarly it is fascinating to see our game management mode kick in too. Bruno goes down and all our lads went to the dugout. Their lads stayed away from the manager, geeing each other up. Was that somewhat symbolic of the two club’s direction? One manager stood watching on as his players get together themselves, the other smack bang in the middle of the red shirts giving instructions.

Not a lot happened after the goal, not really, We had chances, Bruno could have bagged a couple. I was gutted, I had him to score anytime and Lincoln to win for a possible £25 return, but had selected Mark O’Hara at first for £55 return and bottled it. Bruno could have perhaps had a brace late on, half chances at best of course, as could John Akinde. The lads started playing with a certain freedom, the shackles had been cut off after the goal and Yeovil didn’t have a response.

That’s the difference between top and bottom, or at least one of them. Yes, there’s the quality element and although Yeovil are not a bad team, they certainly don’t have the quality in all areas that we have. They’ve got a couple of good lads, one or two who might fit into our squad somewhere. What they didn’t have was a plan B and I think that is what sets us apart from the rest.

Bury like to be labelled as a passing side, slick in attack, as do Forest Green. Other teams are direct by nature, some like the high press, others like to sit deep. Us? We do whatever the moment dictates. How high did we hold our line late on? Much higher than usual, almost penning Yeovil back. We can go long, but if we need to we can switch up to hit with slick passing on the break. We can control the pace of a game, keeping it fast when we need the goal, but slowing it down when we don’t.

That was obvious in the final five minutes, certainly when Harry Toffolo took his booking to stop a counter. With the high line they had to get in over the top, but they didn’t have the pace up top to do that. The only way they’d get a goal was a quick counter and even in the final minutes, our attacking full back had the awareness to commit an obvious, cynical foul. It’s not something everyone would admire but you know what? I did.

That relief when the final whistle went was worth it, reminiscent of us beating Bromley and Chester two years ago. We’d ground out a result, finally coming up against a side determined to defend and finding the answers we needed. Our strengths, certainly in recent weeks, have been against the top teams who want a proper game, but we’ve struggled against eight or nine behind the ball. We didn’t dominate with free-flowing football, but we probed and even when things didn’t run our way, we kept on at them.

I would also like to mention referee Scott Oldham who I thought had an excellent game. He let it flow where possible and although we didn’t get all the decisions I felt we should, a neutral would certainly have given him a nine out of ten. How many times have I mentioned him in the article? very few and that is the sign of a good referee. Can we have him every week? 

Anyway, on Tuesday all eyes were on Bury and they missed their cue. Last night all eyes were on us and just like DHL, we delivered. It might have come a little later than we’d have liked, but we delivered and right now we’ve got a five point cushion to enjoy.

At least until 5pm.

Due to a technical issue, our regular match photos have not been available for the last two matches. Normal service will be resumed this weekend

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