That all changed in the second half, but not immediately. The key was always going to be keeping it tight for the first 15 minutes or so, trying to turn their crowd against them, and we might even have nicked a second early on. The highlights of the game, as picked by Sky, show the first three chances for us. It’s generous, but the truth is Adam Jackson’s header from another corner could have made it 2-0, whilst Mandroiu’s ball for House not long after might have brought a good chance. House recycled the opportunity for Diamond to fire straight at Walton, but both were chances that, on another day, could have brought a goal.
They were also the final really good opportunities for us as the blue wave swept over the field. Credit to their support as well – we might have been winning and had a good early chance or two, but they never turned on their players. We’ve been to grounds where it has happened, Portsmouth fans are quick to turn, but it didn’t feel like it happened yesterday. Mind you, they had plenty to cheer; to say Ipswich took control of the game after that would be an understatement, and yet many of their fans have commented this morning about how we deserved the win. How can a team who finishes on 76% and 33 shots not deserve the victory? Firstly, only five of those efforts were on target, and secondly, we were ruthless in our dedication to the cause. It didn’t matter what Ipswich tried, City had the answer.
When their Plan A wasn’t working (£750,000 Connor Chaplin and former Rotherham record signing Freddie Ladapo), they tried Plan B (dynamic young duo Kyle Edwards and Tyreece John-Jules). When that didn’t work, they went 4-4-2 and brought on Kayden Jackson and former Spurs youngster Vincent Young. They tried targeting TJ with big crossfield balls, but when we switched to a different shape, they adjusted. All the time, they were piling on the pressure, looking for openings, and they were frustrated at every turn.
That’s because Lincoln City yesterday showed everything some felt we have not in past games; fight, passion, and desire. I argue that those qualities have been there, and not displaying them (Cambridge/Peterborough) is the rarity, not the rule. This was Oxford away all over again, Portsmouth away replayed. However, it was against arguably the best attacking force in terms of chance creation we’ve seen this season, and it was a test passed.
I lost count of the number of times Poole, O’Connor and Adam Jackson put their bodies on the line. When Ipswich tried to break our lines, there was always a foot there, maybe from a tracking Sanders or Virtue, a returning Roughan or TJ. I’ll be disappointed in any of the midfield or defence are rated lower than an eight on the player rater at the bottom of this page because, in terms of a complete defensive performance, it is hard to remember us doing as well. Even Premier League Burnley didn’t come on us as much as Ipswich yesterday, and there were five divisions difference between them and us. Maybe Liverpool did when they beat us 7-2 in the cup, but I can genuinely say, hand on heart, that the two cup games against Everton didn’t quite feel as one-sided in terms of attack.
Perhaps I’m getting carried away, perhaps I’m magnifying their attacking prowess because I am so damn proud of our performance out of possession; if so, I make my apologies now. A few weeks ago, we went to Bristol Rovers, won 6-3 and had people saying ‘we have to sort out that defence’. We’ve now kept two clean sheets against the division’s bigger teams, and but for two silly choices, we’d have done the same at Bolton. There can be no doubt that the tactical shift, and work on the training ground, have brought some positive results. If you’d offered me four points from these three matches and then four from the next three (Sheff Weds, Barnsley and Port Vale), I’d take both and never look back.
I could go on and on about the second-half performance, how well we worked out of possession, how we stifled a really good team, but it would literally be me writing words like ‘a nice Ipswich move ended in Adam Jackson blocking a shot’, or ‘a sweeping Ipswich pass ended with a stiff tackle from Regan Poole’. All you have to do is mix up the words yourself, putting a different Imps player in the frame for each action. There you go; you’re a writer now as well; try it. ‘Ipswich broke down the flank, but TJ’s firm tackle stopped the attack’ – it’s easy, because every player in red and white stopped something during the game. Make sure you add a bit about Rushworth in there as well – he put in a good, solid display and made the saves he needed to, when the brick wall in front of him was breached.
At one point, my heart rate increased to my 5k running heart rate. I felt sick and excited at the same time, which is silly for just a league game with three points at stake, but it feels more important than that. It feels like a corner turned; it feels like vindication for last weekend’s bore-fest and the trip to Bolton. It shows, for my money at least, the signs of progression in terms of organisation and team spirit. Mark Kennedy’s team are only 12 games old in the Football League, but they look as organised as one with much more football in the locker. Besides, it’s nice to get excited about a game in mid-October, and after last week, we did need a bit of something to get the blood pumping.
I’m drawn to this table, which shows relative performance, something I mentioned in my ten-game assessment article. It shows the difficulty of our opponents in the opening fixtures in terms of their points tally – we’ve still had the fourth most difficult opening fixtures in terms of the points haul of the opposition, and by the time we come off the field against Barnsley, we’ll likely be back to having the most difficult. To come through that outside the bottom four, poised in the middle of the pack, is a testament to three qualities I keep mentioning that I’ve seen plenty of – fight, passion and desire.
We have shown more of that in the past 24 hours than we did for almost all of last winter. There are things to work on, sure, that’s always going to be the case, but clean sheets against Charlton and now Ipswich, with four points in the bag, suggests that there will be highs accompanying those lows. In fact, our season will likely be defined by how we do against those teams we feel we’re ‘supposed’ to beat, and not the ones who feel they’re supposed to beat us.
That’s a question for another day. Now, I’m going to release the Roger Holmes podcast (a player who hadn’t left school the last time we won at Portman Road) and enjoy an afternoon in a way that is only possible after Lincoln City have won on a Saturday.
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