Stacey West Player of the Month for March

April 1, 2021 Gary Lincoln City, Opinion, Stat Attack 0

Worst Performance of the Month – Gillingham 4.92

 

Last season v Gills, as Bubs wasn’t at this year’s game. Lucky him – Courtesy Graham Burrell

Collectively, you voted our 3-0 defeat against Gillingham the worst performance of the month. I’m very surprised given the Rochdale match (it had an average rating of 5.04 btw, so was saved, pardon the pun, by Alex Palmer’s 7.3), that it wasn’t the worst, but there we go. What was it about this performance which irked you so much? I felt we played better in the second half than we did against Fleetwood too, so I can’t help but think perhaps Mr Evans has something to do with the low score. Sure, we were bad at the back and gifted goals, but to rank this as worse than any other game this season really surprises me. For context, our 4-0 thrashing at home against Sunderland even got a higher score.

Best Performance of the Month – Crewe 7.39

Credit Graham Burrell

With only one win all month, it wasn’t hard to guess which game was going to win this award, although it might be a surprise to know it only just beat Sunderland away. It seems the Imps save the best for Crewe this season, and our 3-0 win was the third time we’d defeated them in 2020/21. There were some big performances, McGrandles grabbing an 8.5 for the way he ran the midfield, but Brennan Johnson also looking devastating and grabbing an 8.2. Collectively, there were a lot of players around the 7.1 mark, which shows what happens when the Imps are in full flow and functioning. In fact, only keeper Alex Palmer scored below 7, getting a 6.9, which is as much about how many shots he faced as it is his performance.

 

Best Individual Performance of the Month – Conor McGrandles v Crewe 8.5

Credit Graham Burrell

In a tough month, it is fair to say Conor McGrandles has been something of a shining light. He scored one against Crewe, but helped to run the midfield with a typical gutsy and energetic display, which saw him smash the best performance from an individual this month. In fact, only three players managed to score above 8 on average in a single game – McGrandles, Johnson (8.2 also against Crewe) and Liam Bridcutt on his only 90 minutes of the month against Sunderland (8.1).

It is nice that after a horrible month, and a terrible start to April with Covid, that we can at least reflect on some positive elements from the last five weeks.