For a moment, forget our form and the perception of how we’re playing. In fact, forget you’re even a Lincoln City fan. Imagine this scenario; you’re a big club at home in the FA Cup against a side you’re expected to beat. You’ve been playing relatively well all season and yet you’re 1-0 down at half time and being outplayed. What is expected of you? Are you likely to get a good shafting at half time, then come out and give it a real go? I’d wager so.
Therefore, what happened in the second half isn’t really a surprise. Ipswich were always going to come out with a flea in their ear, they were always going to come at us. Hell, they’ve got two current England Under 20 internationals on their side and plenty of quality even without the players on the bench. What happened wasn’t our fault, we had to cope with a wounded animal and in the main, I think we did that quite well.
I’ve heard about us not being clinical enough for three years, throughout the trophy-laded recent history we’ve enjoyed.
We had to scrap, hard. I said at half time the second 45 would be a big test of character and we weathered a storm at first. Josh made a couple of good saves, Will Keane headed wide and Harry Toffolo made a solid block too. Keane heading wide should serve as proof that all clubs suffer from a lack of clinical finishing. Hell, I’ve heard about us not being clinical enough for three years, throughout the trophy-laded recent history we’ve enjoyed. It’s a problem suffered across the Football League and one that is only made possible if you’re creating plenty of chances.
Anyway, for fear of sounding like a stuck record, I’ll continue. We did get forward a bit, Ellis Chapman came on and had a decent game. Losing Michael O’Connor when we did obviously had an effect, he’s the heartbeat of this team, but Ellis put in a good shift and his cross from the left had to be smartly dealt with. Ellis had a good spell with Chesterfield on the left and he’s clearly comfortable delivering from that area. I’m sure he’ll appear in the centre of midfield on Tuesday night and dare I say, he looks to be thriving under the new manager. I didn’t think he had a great game against Man Utd, but he’s come on and done well a couple of times now.
We kept defending well, popping forward occasionally, until the potentially game-changing incident 20 minutes from time. Hesketh, my Man of the Match, was fouled in the area and the referee pointed to the spot. Bag this, we win the game, it’s that simple. At 2-0 I feel we could easily have controlled the final period, even if we let one in we have the sort of resilience not to completely implode. Last season, from 12-yards, John Akinde missed how many penalties? One? He got a lot of stick for only scoring penalties and yet right now, we need someone to put them away.
It wasn’t a bad penalty, it wasn’t a great one either. Tyler put in a great shift yesterday afternoon, but it’s time to find a new penalty taker. Don’t forget, he missed the spot kick for Mansfield in their play-off semi-final and he’s missed two now this season. Against Sunderland, he bounced back to add a second goal, but after a weak attempt from the rebound, he didn’t get that opportunity yesterday. From that moment on, I felt we’d either draw or lose.
We are moving in the right direction and although we’re not winning games, we’ve only lost one in four.
Missing a penalty can be like scoring a goal for the opposition. They celebrate it like it is a goal and it gave Ipswich the lift to push forward. Within four minutes of Norris making the save, Ipswich levelled. Was it a cross or a shot? Who cares, it went in and the impetus shifted even more towards the home side.
Right now, I’m a glass half full man and rather than bemoaning our lack of finishing or the fact we conceded, I want to praise how we stoically defended at 1-1 when weaker teams might have imploded. I want to praise how we still showed an endeavour to get forward when Ipswich were clearly in the ascendency. I want to point out that we scored twice in October and with a third of this month gone we’ve already matched that. We are moving in the right direction and although we’re not winning games, we’ve only lost one in four.
Ipswich did press forward, but even with Danny Rowe, Gwion Edwards and James Norwood on the field, they didn’t get the winner. We even had a late chance, a Jorge Grant free kick handing Jason Shackell the opportunity to win the game. It wasn’t to be and in the end, we’re back at the Bank on or around my birthday.
Positives; we’re in the hat for the next round, we scored and created chances and we should have won the game. We played well, individual players such as Hesketh and Connolly are stepping up to the plate and aside from a few moaning minnies on Twitter, fans are generally behind the new manager.
Negatives; Neal Eardley didn’t have a great game, he gave the ball away a lot and got roasted on the flanks, it’s another lead we didn’t hold on to and we should have been 2-0 up long before the missed penalty.
I think that’s a fair assessment without going into specifics. I’m not blind; results haven’t been as good as Michael Appleton would have liked and to the untrained eye it might seem like we’re crumbling. To those who do understand football though, the evidence is present that we’re on the right track. We are getting chances, I couldn’t say we’ve played badly in any game MA has presided over except Shrewsbury and with a little bit more luck and confidence we would have drawn with Portsmouth, Peterborough and Blackpool, as well as beating Wimbledon and Ipswich.
We are getting there; the road might be rocky and it might not have an end in sight right now, but I believe this manager will bring us consolidation in this division. I’m not saying that based on his press conferences, you’ll notice I barely cover them on here; I’m saying it because I have watched every minute of his reign and as yet, I’ve not seen anything that worries me beyond the odd tweaks here and there. With a couple of his players and more time on the training ground, we could well find ourselves tucked in mid-table come May.
One place we are definitely tucked in is the FA Cup draw, something that has become quite the occurrence over the last few years. He’s to getting Boston away and seeing Bruno Andrade pick up a John Akinde pass, round Will Norris and score in the final minute of the replay in ten days time.
i have watched several penalty saves from the best to the absolutely luckiest this season. The one thought that occurred to me was. Since the new rules covering penalties came in for this season. The advantage has switched from the taker to the goalkeepers. I have not seen or heard of one that was saved being retaken due to the goalkeeper moving too soon.
Fair analysis. Thought Eardley had one of his worst games in a while, and all Ipswich joy seemed to come down that side, and panic seemed to creep in at the back after HT. Can’t believe Appleton is getting stick for his players lack of finishing. We created far more and better chances against Ipswich than we did against Wimbledon. A win against Gillingham would give so much confidence
I know someone derided for “only” scoring penalties.
Anyway on another note, are the chickens of success coming home to roost. We are having a shakey patch, and most of our fans have never experienced this before. Is the level of moaning about the manager etc just part of the price we pay? They have no been to Welling and Carshalton away, only Wembley and Burnley and the Emirates. Not their fault, but when people have known only success and promotion, being in a battle is not known to them.
A good example is Saturday. Last time we played we took 5k. There was an “impvasion” and social media was awash with photos of people going to the game. Where was that this time out? And we drew 2-2 last time and there was delrium. We have never had it so good for years. Now we meet them on an arguably level footing, and get a draw and it is all doom and gloom. 4 years ago I would have gone on such a big bender they would need to collect me from the pub if you would have said we would go to Ipswich and get a draw, and we would also be in the same league, and no, Ipswich had not had some catastrophic financial lapse that lead to them being in the conference.
I may be being harsh to our new fans, but I just worry that those that joined us in March 2017 might not be up for the fight of clinging onto league 1 status.