Before I go into the second half, let me make something clear: Lincoln City’s best football will come away from home. We’ve seen four games at Sincil Bank this season (in the league), twice we’ve failed to score and on only two occasions have we netted from open play. There’s a reason for this; teams come to us to defend and ask questions. Right now, we don’t have the depth and variety to answer those questions consistently, or rather we haven’t shown that we have the players. Away from home, things are very different, teams have to attack us and we can break at pace. That approach we do have the players for, and our front three today did very well. Scully was just Scully, doing what he does best, but I thought Adelakun looked a threat too. Early on, he’d had their full-back on toast with a smidgen of honey, and although he drifts out of the game at times, that’s a by-product of being a fast, attacking winger in a game the opposition look to dominate in terms of possession. Don’t underestimate how good our front three were today.
Within seconds of coming out (180 seconds to be precise), the game was won and lost. Burton’s own Premier League loan star, Daniel Jebbison, drew a point-blank range save from Josh Griffiths, something I’m sure could be described as a wonder save. In a quick move we swept up field, where Regan Poole found Anthony Scully for a tap in. It could have been 1-1, but it was 2-0 and 90% of the time, 2-0 is a comfortable scoreline. It was typical Scully, right place, right time, but that doesn’t happen by accident. he times his runs, he has a habit of knowing where the ball is and he hit double figures for the season before the end of September. I’d be interested to know the last player to achieve such a feat.
Let’s be honest, from there the game certainly swung in the home sides favour, and City were forced to soak up a lot of pressure. Having seen how easily we conceded against Oxford a few weeks ago, you always feel there’s going to be something in the goals against column, but the key is making sure it doesn’t adversely affect the result. However, with Griffiths coming into his own, and a settled centre back pairing beginning to emerge, we do look more secure. Today, I felt that Eyoma and Montsma didn’t always get the protection in front of them that Bridcutt usually provides, but we still looked resolute. We picked our moments to attack, N’Lundulu drawing a super tackle from John Brayford, but my gut feeling was we’d keep a clean sheet. Like all of my feelings towards the Imps today, that was wrong.
After some wonderful saves, savage defending and the occasional break, we conceded. Blame who you want. I don’t care, for me the goal was always coming and it was a case of Burton banging hard enough on the door to open it a crack. The big question was this; could they kick the bloody thing in and grab a point.
It wasn’t a great ten minutes to be a City fan, and if you’re of a nervous disposition, you might need a stiff brandy to calm down. The problem wasn’t that Burton were relentless, but that we missed two amazing chances to wrap the game up. Bramall came on as the impact sub and tee’d up our leading scorer and you thought it was game over. All Scully had to do was stroke the ball home in the last minute, and he hit the post. If he scores 20 this season, 19 of them will be harder than that late chance, but that’s football. I certainly won’t be calling him at all, he’s earned a bit of credit this season and at that stage, had got the winner for us.
The Remy got his chance, one-on-one with the keeper after some great work by the impressive Fiorini. All he had to do was hit the target and you felt he’d score, but he didn’t even get a chance off. It’s heartbreaking because if there’s one player I want to do well, one lad who deserves to be scoring goals, it’s him, but it just doesn’t happen for him. we got the win, so not much focus will be given to his misfortune, but if we’d drawn 2-2, it would have been a big talking point.
We didn’t, we won 2-1, but I’m not sure how. We had to dig deep, just as we had to against Rotherham. Burton loaded the box and fired balls in, which we plucked out of the air, headed away, or blocked. Stupidly, with seconds remaining, we gave away a silly free-kick so once again, they could load the box. It felt like a final chance, but the ball came over and out for a corner. Balls, yet another final chance, and this time Josh Griffiths ended up pouncing on the ball in a penalty box crowded with players. It was brave, but it is what you want a keeper to do and as he did, the whistle went. Craig Hicks, a referee I had no cause to talk about at all, blew the whistle and delivered us a much-needed three points.
We’re a young team, missing our experienced players. Chris Maguire, Tom Hopper, Joe Walsh, Connor McGrandles and Liam Bridcutt are all players who would likely be starting today, were they fit; there are more than 1000 Football League games there, many hours of knowledge and guile. I dare bet we barely had 1000 games spread amongst the entire side today, against a strong Burton team. When you consider that, it’s respectable that we’re only three points from fifth at this early stage; we’re tucked in there as we’d hoped to be. It hasn’t all gone our way but, if we’d got the result we deserved from the Ipswich game, a draw, we’d actually be eighth right now. Football is all ifs and buts, but if you offered me eighth in May, I’d take that and move on. We’re not in a terrible place and today proved that even some of the players who haven’t quite convinced yet, are on the right track. Adelakun and N’Lundulu both put in good performances, and whilst I haven’t talked about Sorensen and Bishop, they weren’t bad either.
We press on to Tuesday now, away at Morecambe, where you’d hope we’ll be competitive and able to come away with something. If we show the same resilience as we did today, we’ll be okay. Now’s not the time for previewing Morecambe though, it’s the time to raise a glass to the youthful Lincoln City squad that just secured their third win in five matches. That’s a stat that seems remarkable when you consider the abuse and criticism they were receiving one week ago.
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