The second half started in explosive fashion, with a chance for City within minutes of the kick-off. We came out with the intensity that we often see in the first half, and perhaps we should have scored from the chance that led to the penalty. Joe Taylor might have struck the ball, but I’m not sure if he intentionally laid it back to House or mishit it. Then, House rushing in seemed to be felled by Ruben Rodrigues. I’ve watched back in slow motion, something the referee does not have the benefit of, and I’m not sure it’s a foul. Rodrigues looks to play the ball, not the man, but it is a tackle from behind, something I know is not acceptable now. Still, if that’s against us, we release a sarcastic podcast saying how an official has ruined our season. At least, I guess that’s what we’d do.
Danny Mandroiu stepped up with all the confidence of John Akinde (who, by the way, scored an absolute worldy against Grimsby to help relegated Forest Green last night), but with a penalty that doesn’t leave you nervously peering through your fingers. Cumming might have got a touch, but it didn’t matter. Mandroiu’s strike gave us a 1-0 lead, and ultimately, the game.
It feels a little crass to say something like decisions even themselves out because it’s not actually how it works, but any Imps wishing to be pragmatic could look at this and the disallowed goal on Saturday and just accept that’s how football is. Me, I look at Saturday and think, ‘We could have been one clear of Oxford now,’ disregarding what I feel was a fortunate penalty. That’s because I’m selfish and don’t care about anyone other than Lincoln City. So there.
After the goal, nerves kicked in for me. Deep down, I didn’t expect us to win the game. I knew we could, I don’t doubt this team’s ability to beat anyone in this division on the right day, but I didn’t think we’d beat Oxford. With a 1-0 lead, things swiftly changed, we had something to lose and that is a nerve-wracking situation to be in. We’ve got the division’s best keeper and the joint-tightest defence. Our backline is the one area of the pitch we haven’t been ravaged by injury, and it shows with how well they’ve done. Now, they had 45 minutes or so to prove how good they were.
Much of the second half is a blur to me, a broken-up period of football that produced a little clear cut for either side. Freddie’s volley from a corner was perhaps our best chance, but whilst Oxford needed to change the game somehow, they didn’t quite manage it. Cameron Brannagan, another player with no business at this level, came on and instantly seemed to attract Erhahon’s attention. Their running battle was almost as interesting as anything that happened with the ball.
I’m critical of dark arts, it’s a side of the beautiful game that is not at all beautiful, but we were so good at it last night. I bring that in here because Erhahon is the master; he’s like Professor Snape, a master of the dark arts. When they’re done badly, you get red cards, fouls, and more time added on than you can count on your fingers. When you do them right, you get promoted; just ask Wycombe in 2018, or Bolton this season. Bolton are the team I wanted us to aspire to be: a mixture of talent and street-smart, able to attack long or short. That’s what I saw more of last night than at any time before. Ian Evatt’s Bolton, in red and white with a more likeable manager.
I can’t recall a clear-cut chance for Oxford in the second half. They brought on Billy Bodin, a nine-goal midfielder with a Wales cap, Marcus McGuane, once of Barcelona, and Marcus Browne once of West Ham and Middlesbrough. They had great options, and this wasn’t at the overall expense of their attacking group – 18-goal Mark Harris and Josh Murphy both also finished the game. That’s an embarrassment of riches in terms of attacking prowess, and yet they produce nothing clear-cut. It wasn’t through a lack of trying; it came instead through the sheer desire and commitment of our players.
I said the game had everything, and towards the end, it had a red card. It’s easy for us to analyse the situation and complain, but there’s no way Duffy’s first challenge is a yellow – just like the penalty, he wins the ball, but certainly not from behind. In real-time, it looks like a trip, and I think there was a bit of anger that it was punished, whereas other fouls were not. It’s easy to argue a yellow until we’re blue in the face, but they only become important when they later turn red.
I’ve watched the second yellow back, and it is a yellow. He’s off his feet, and whilst he wins the ball, you can’t tackle like that and not be booked in the modern game. Duffy will be disappointed, not least because Reeco’s injury means he could have been forced into the spotlight for the weekend’s fixture. I suspect we’ll now turn to a largely forgotten man, Jack Burroughs, to play on the left flank, or perhaps Sean Roughan with Jacko coming in. Either way, it’s a blow for Duffy, but he’ll learn from it.
That set up a tense finale, seven minutes of normal time and seven minutes of injury time. 15 huge minutes in our season. I prepared for the Alamo, a siege like no other, where everything and anything came at us. The hatches got battened down, Jack Moylan got taken off moments after coming as as a consequence of the red card and we waited for the onslaught.
It never came. In the period after the red card, we saw five of Oxford’s 18 shots. Three came from one corner, where Rodrigues put a bicycle kick over, and two, from Browne and Bodin, had an xG of less than 0.01 (that means they’d go in once in 100 or more shots). Overall, our eight shots produced more xG than their 18, and even with the penalty taken out, we were comparable (the foul for the penalty does not gather xG, so we’d be more or less level without the foul).
Why? Why with such a great attacking presence on the field did the home side create nothing late on? They’d been a menace all game, how did we emerge with three points? Character. We defended well, we broke up the game in a manner than caused Lee Swaby to only add on six minutes. With a goal and seven subs across six moments, you expect three at least. Given the moments he had to speak to players, I thought we’d have ten. Again, I got the frustration of the home side thinking there should be a few more minutes, but without a meaningful, clear-cut chance at goal in 51 second-half minutes, what did they think would happen in an extra 180 seconds?
Instead, we played seven minutes and then it was brought to an end, a game that was must-win for us, had been won. Early in the season, this is a massive three points, an indication that something might be unfurling in this campaign. With just two games to go, we know exactly what it is. It is a lifeline that reflects what Michael Skubala, Tom Shaw, Chris Cohen and the rest of the backroom team have created. When they arrived at the club, they were handed a rich smorgasbord of talent, a blend of ingredients that hadn’t been used to create the best meal possible. Now, they’re getting flavour and substance from a side slowly succumbing to injury and the like, and we’re still here fighting.
It feels like a Rocky movie. At one stage, nobody gave us a chance, and we got more bloody noses than you see in the toilets at the Brit Awards. Then, a montage, players coming back, and new signings all set to a cheesy 80s inspirational power track (I’m thinking The Cult, Rise) before a resurgence, steaming through opponents. We’re now in the final act, the last twist in the tale. We’ve been on the canvas through no fault of our own (guess who put us there on Saturday), and yet here we are, moments from the end of the film, and we’ve come out swinging.
It isn’t over until the fat lady sings, and it won’t be over even if the fat bloke waddles around the Kassam on Friday night, throwing fist pumps into a much less populated away end. We’re off the canvas, and while the odds are still stacked in our favour, there could yet be a big twist in the story, a sting in the tail.
“That Lincoln City,” said the smug podcast presenter. “It seems like they’ve faded away sometimes, but they will never die. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”