At half time I felt the game was heading for a 0-0. I felt there was an opportunity for us, Deji Oshilaja in particular looked susceptible to players running at him, and whilst Williams Kokolo looked good going forward, he too would worry me at the back. Mind you, the same could be said for Cohen Bramall, who I felt had a good game going forward, but not such a solid one in his defensive third.
We came out all guns blazing though, and took the lead through a defensive error. Bramall was the provider, proving his worth as an attacking wide player yet again, with a teasing cross. It should have been cut out at the front post, but Shaughnessy missed it, as did Sam Hughes, with Brayford then in no man’s land as well. In all, four Burton players watched it go across the front of goal, where poacher John Marquis tucked it home. I was happy with Marquis yesterday, he got into good positions, won some defensive headers and did what strikers are meant to do; get a goal Just for comparison, he’s now scored two goals in 191 League One minutes (including injury times etc). Dan N’Lundulu managed one in 767. I think it’s clear what we’ve been missing.
At that point I turned to my mate Matt and made the obvious statement; we just need to keep it tight for ten minutes now. I thought if we did, if we weathered the storm (literally and metaphorically), we’d be alright. I’m not sure we got a touch between them kicking off and scoring seven minutes later. They upped the intensity, and we almost seemed frightened of holding the 1-0 lead. At least Burton took the fear away from us pretty quickly.
What really grates on me about the goal is there are eight of our players, including Josh Griffiths, level or behind the ball when Joe Powell gets his strike on goal. Burton had made no fewer than five contacts with different players from their long throw without a tackle, and the only Imps touch came as Cohen Bramall tried to shield the ball away from a player from the initial throw. Had that been the other end, bodies would have been on the line, but as Joe Powell strikes the ball, the only despairing lunge to block it comes from Tom Hopper 2.0, aka John Marquis, defending as our regular nine did last season. I’m not sure where the direct blame lies, but it is a hugely disappointing goal to concede. We just cannot defend set plays and long throws, and it’s becoming a problem. You know if an opposing team delivers a ball into the box, by whatever means, there’s going to be panic.
Of course, the other end of the pitch is different; such is our lack of physical presence from corners and throw-ins that we’ve taken to putting short corners in, rather than simply whipping it into the box. To be fair, with players like Oshilaja, we’re never going to be winning headers; last weekend against Plymouth it is poor defending that led to the winner, not a powerful player forcing his way into the box. I’m not a fan of the short corner when we dither, which we did on more than one occasion yesterday, but I’m also not a fan of a whipped in corner when there’s a swirling wind and we’re notoriously bad at aerial challenges anyway. The simple fact is we were bossed from set-pieces, as we have been time and time again.
That goal seemed to awaken the Lincoln City we saw Boxing Day, the team terrified of making a mistake. Sadly, even up to that point, one or two just hadn’t turned up. I’m not jumping on Fiorini, but in what was almost a 4-2-4, he just didn’t have the presence to help out McGrandles. He’s a weird one; at times, he’s been excellent, physical and measured on the ball, but then other games he just withers away. Yesterday was one of the other games. I wasn’t impressed with Whittaker either; he didn’t seem to want to chase anything down, and the runs that carved open Oxford were completely lost as he meandered aimlessly down blind alleys time and again. We had a real attacking presence with Bramall and Scully on the left, but from the right, we had nothing. Partly that might be down to having a midfielder at right-back rather than a full back, but it’s also because Whittaker struggled to get into the game. The concerning thing, which I’m sure will be addressed, is he didn’t look as if he wanted to get involved half of the time. Here’s a stat to back that up; we had 28 positional attacks yesterday (open play attack that’s not a counter), of which 13 came from the left. Those attacks resulted in a shot 75% of the time. Through the centre we managed eight, one of which resulted in a shot. From the attacking right we made seven attacks, and not one resulted in a shot. For want of a better phrase, we were completely lopsided in our attack. That’s frustrating when their left-sided defender, Oshilaja, was there for the taking.
For the record, our left-sided central midfielder was McGrandles, so the trio of him, Scully and Bramall, worked well, with Bishop, Fiorini and Whittaker not working as well. That said, I thought Bishop has a strong game. I’ve also seen some criticism of Cullen in the ten role, but I thought he did quite well. He played a couple of really good balls, and although he didn’t drive us on to a win, he was the best of the outfield loan players yesterday, by some distance.
What’s frustrating is after our goal, we only had two efforts, one of which was a save from their keeper. That was it. We just couldn’t cope, whether it was the wind, the opponents or our own mentality. Although I felt one goal would win the game, which is I suppose another of my bloody obvious statements, I never felt that one goal would be ours and it wasn’t. However, before the goal, there was a moment that I heard lots of moaning about as we left the ground.
Michael made two subs, bringing off Ted Bishop and Adam Jackson, and introducing Norton-Cuffy and TJ Eyoma. Now, I can see why there’s a train of thought that with ten minutes to go it wasn’t the best of moves; whilst Bishop normally gets brought off, the Jackson change was the one I think most people were concerned about. TJ’s first touch was calamitous, and to give a defender ten minutes to not only get into the pace of the game, but also to get to grips with the conditions, seemed a little odd. However, I get why they were made; as I said, Bishop is being nursed through anyway, and Jackson played longer than we’d intended. The changes didn’t impact the goal, although it did seem that people wanted to indicate they did.
No, the goal was purely a case of us being outmuscled from a set play, the same old, same old. It’s so simple, a corner comes in, Bramall goes down and one would assume it was him marking Sam Hughes because with Cohen on the turf, Hughes is free to put the ball away completely unimpeded. I’d seen a few shouts of our keeper being obstructed, of Cohen being fouled, but the simple fact is it was a fair goal which we should have done much better with. We didn’t, and once again we’ve paid the price. As the ball went in, Gav behind me said ‘I’m sick of watching Lincoln lose at home’. Me too Gav, me too.
We could have left the ground there and then, because there was no way back. Burton just reverted to defence mode, like the Bat Mobile in the Batman films, when all the armour goes up. They laboured over every throw-in and every goal kick, as any good team would do with a 2-1 lead away from home. Fair play to them, on the balance of play, the second half showing and (marginally) the xG, they deserved their 2-1 win. I don’t think anyone would have complained at the draw, but if either side deserved the three points, it was them rather than us. Sadly, as I’ve said before, when you’re a team passing out from the back and relying on intricate football to get you through, all eleven players need to be on point. For my money, at least two were not, and that left us lopsided and lacking the bite in midfield.
Of course, it meant the Michael Out crew, so silent last week and after the Sunderland game, got the green light to open up their phones, and the happy clappers simply buried their head in the sand and ignored social media. There are two very clear camps right now in terms of reaction, and neither ever truly see the bigger picture. There is a middle ground, those who enjoy the wins without using it as point-scoring, but who can constructively criticise the defeats, but far fewer fans occupy that middle ground. Still, I guess that’s football, isn’t it? It could be worse, we could be Gillingham fans, or we could be entitled Sunderland supporters crying over a defeat despite being in the top six. It could be better though; if we hadn’t conceded late goals at home against Cambridge, MK Dons and now Burton, we’d have three more points and be sitting 15th in the table. Fine margins.
I came away with the usual feeling of anger and resentment, but once again Dad and I didn’t fall out. Even he could see the conditions affected the game, we didn’t deal with them as well, and one or two players let us down on the afternoon. On the whole, the team didn’t play badly, we certainly keep getting the ball in the right areas, and the likes of Regan Poole continue to impress. I still feel we have too much to go down, but I’m also aware that I don’t want the apathy of eleven years ago to settle in, where a defeat is greeted with a shrug of the shoulders and a comment of ‘if we win x, y and z’ game. We need points, sooner rather than later, to avoid being pulled into that final relegation spot. In my eyes, that’s where the danger lies; I think Crewe, Doncaster and Gillingham can plan for League Two already, and its one from the next nine or ten teams who will be joining them. Between now and the start of May, we just need to make sure that isn’t us.
Widget not in any sidebars