SH' Back underway at LNER Stadium. Regan Poole think he's scored but the linesman has his flag up for offside 😫
Keep pushing, lads 👊
🔴 0-1 🔵 #LINIPS pic.twitter.com/8LDxrXjFrs
— Lincoln City FC 🇺🇦 (@LincolnCity_FC) September 18, 2021
We came out for the second half looking really hungry, and in fairness whilst many of you are smarting, I thought we were the better side in the final 45. Let’s be honest, but for the width of a hair, we’d have been level early on. A good Bramall cross saw Regan Poole steaming in from the right and slamming the ball home, only for the referee to rule it out for offside. Replays are inconclusive, but It was tight, very tight. Two decisions, both against us, which meant it remained 1-0 to them, not 1-0 to us. Literally, that was the difference between the two sides, calls from the referee. After the game, Michael called Speedie arrogant, and whilst I haven’t met the man, for Michael to be so incensed is unusual. Those in line with the ball say Poole might have been marginally off when the ball arrived, but not so when played. Still, that’s the rub of the green, and whilst their goal was horrendous officiating, the one we had ruled out was no better than 50/50.
Ipswich shut up shot, looking for their first win by hitting us on the break and not conceding, and that made for a tense affair. Shouts of ‘get it forward’ from the stands prove only one thing; many fans do not entirely grasp how the game works. Were we really going to launch the ball towards Tom Hopper, who again got bossed in the air, only to see the ball return for another go? No. When we did try to ‘get it forward’ by dropping it into the channels it was met with groans of derision in most instances, and a volley of abuse for the player who tried to do what the fans had called for him to do! I understand the frustration, hell I felt it just as much, but we don’t play ‘get it forward’ football, Gillingham do. Even if we wanted to, we don’t have a ‘get it forward’ striker to head the ball up into the air, or for it to stick to him. We did that with Matt Rhead, and whilst it worked for us then, there’s no chance we’re doing it now.
We did create chances, half chance admittedly, but we were the better team in the second half. We got efforts at goal; Montsma, Brammall and Adelakun all going close (ish), but we just couldn’t break down that bank of eight or nine players ahead of us. Ipswich broke up play nicely, wasted time when they could, and it affected our rhythm. I thought our best spell came before George Coulson’s injury, but he milked it for a good few minutes, which stopped our momentum. You know what? Fair play to him and to Ipswich. It’s what we’d do in their shoes, and whilst I berate Ben Speedie for the goal (and maybe the offside), time-wasting is not something he could crack down on as it was one of the areas of the game Ipswich looked to have down to a tee.
We had corners, which are as good as a goal kick to the opposition these days, and for all our possession and pressure you could see us getting frustrated. When Ipswich did break, they pulled a great save from Griffiths and there, in a nutshell is the difference. I didn’t see their keeper make a save, and ours made one and conceded. Actually, we had more shots in the game, the two teams had the same amount on target, and yet people think we were outplayed? Really? Ipswich have a squad where a loan kid from Villa, who has been at Barcelona, doesn’t get into the side. They have James Norwood not getting a kick, a player who might have been a viable option to Tom on our bench. Yet we created as much as they did (not a great amount, I confess) and but for the flag of a linesman (raised against us, not raised against them), we’d have been 1-0 up. Wow, that’s a terrible result is it? That’s a clueless team, is it? I bet Ipswich spent five times as much on players as we did this summer, I bet their wage bill is at least double, if not more, and we’re moaning because we didn’t create infinitely more than them? There’s actually hidden praise in there for Michael, because he’s raised the bar so high we think we should be beating these teams, when in actual fact merely to be competing as equals is a decent achievement. This isn’t last season with salary caps and restricted budgets, this is League One levelled up, and those that have the means have flashed the cash. We didn’t, and yet we were still just two decisions away from a win.
I think the most disappointing thing was the last ten minutes or so, when we really had run out of ideas. I think many of last night’s opinions recalled those final 15 and not the game that had occurred before them. We never looked like adding a goal in injury time, although I had no clue how much there was as I never saw the board, nor heard it announced. It didn’t matter, on the last ten minutes or so we could have played all night and not scored, but whilst many feel that sums up the whole game, it didn’t, in my opinion.
Did we deserve three points? No. Did Ipswich? No, not in my opinion. Neither side deserved to win a game that was decided, ultimately, by a single bad call from the referee. I’m not hiding behind anything here, our squad looks short, we needed a striker and a wide player on Deadline Day and we got neither. When we need to break teams down, we struggle, and our best results will come away from home at least until January. However, just because we lost to one of the two real moneybags teams in the division doesn’t mean it’ll be a ‘long, hard season’ as some put it. It won’t be as exciting as the one before, but we’re still in League One, competing with teams like Ipswich who, five years ago, felt like a huge club compared to us. They are, by the way, and we’re in the same league doing what we can. With the rub of the green, an option up top, and an official who doesn’t allow two-handed pushes, we’d have matched them yesterday.