If the first half was bad, the second half was worse. Rotherham genuinely battered us, and we were lucky to come away with just a 1-0 defeat. It really hurts me because I imagine Evans is saying that in his post-match presser and I can’t argue. No excuses, no silver lining, nothing. We had four shots, all off-target, with an xG of 0.12. That means, if we’d had those chances 33 times, one could, statistically, have gone in. Bear that in mind – given the quality of our chances yesterday, we’d have to have had at least 63 shots to score two goals, and that’s assuming an xG of 1 is enough. Given that Rotherham’s was 1.72, we’d actually have had to have had 108 shots to score two goals.
We had seven.
I don’t know where the problem was yesterday; not having Ethan certainly didn’t help, and those who replaced him in midfield were jaded and sluggish. We did, occasionally, put a couple of decent passes together, but there was nothing for me to really write about. If I were a Rotherham fan, I’d be waxing lyrical about a fifteen-minute spell they had where Wickens pulled us out of a hole two or three times, with one double save instantly springing to mind.
I feel so deflated writing this, because in the second half, I can’t think of a single positive moment. When the home fans boo subs, that really angers me. However, with one win in 11 in the league, I get it. I’m not sure Draper hearing boos before he comes on helps anyone, and the last time we booed subs, it was Lasse and Morgan Whittaker coming on, but I can understand why it happens. Was Cadamarteri having a decent second half? No, but nobody was. The obvious candidate when it came to the eye test for withdrawal was Ben House, but I’m not the manager. Right now, hearing his post-match interview, I wouldn’t want to be.
I think the issue with the subs and our interpretation of them is that we only have one picture of the game we’ve watched. We don’t know who has trained well, we don’t know who is tired or what our shift in approach should be. There’s a growing body of people around me who are not fans of Draper, and while I desperately wanted him to do well, he was as ineffective as the other red and white shirts in the second half. They all were, all of the subs.
I’ve actually had a night’s sleep and tried to find more positives than negatives from yesterday, and what you’re reading now is what I’ve come up with. The last time I was this scathing about a Lincoln performance, the manager pulled me to one side and gave me a massive bollocking. I don’t expect that now because I don’t think anyone is in denial about yesterday’s performance. It was the worst way to see it in 2025 unless you subscribe to the ‘the only way is up’ theory.
The goal isn’t pretty to watch. Firstly, Paudie misses a header, which is unlike him. Then, Wickens (who had a solid game aside from this) rushes out to punch but doesn’t get contact. I thought it was a foul in real-time, but it’s not, and there’s Joe Powell, a player I’ve praised so many times during his Burton stint, on hand to slot home through four defenders. I even have an issue with Ethan Hamilton as well – when Wickens comes to punch, he is next to Powell on the edge of the area, walking back. I think he perhaps could have been a bit sharper, and while he isn’t to blame, he is one ingredient in a shit sandwich we were all forced to dine on.
That’s that, really. What else do I write? I can’t gloss over this one; it was bad, and it’s the third game in a row where we’ve been bad for a period. We were bad for the first 15 against Shrewsbury and then lacked a cutting edge. We were bad in the final 45 against Bolton, but had ten men, and we were bad from start to finish against Rotherham We now have just a day or two to pick ourselves up before Stevenage, and that’s nowhere near enough. Last year, after we crawled into 2024 broken and bruised, we had 11 glorious days and a raft of new signings, bringing optimism and hope.
I’m not sure what the next 11 days bring, but I hope to God it’s at least a point on Saturday, and maybe the turning of a corner, because if not, I fear the boos that rang out around the ground at full time will get louder. I still believe we’ve got the right people in place, and we’re on the right track, but this is a sticky period, and we need to stick together.
Together, we stand. Divided, we fall.
Up the Imps.
