There is a train of thought that suggests League One is largely a collection of similar teams all looking for marginal gains to set their season apart from others.
There are certainly a cohort of teams that, in terms of finances, you expect to be in and around us. Okay, with the Jovon sale and a couple of others, we may have lifted slightly up this table, but Burton Albion are a side I believe will be within £150,000 of us in terms of wage budget. We know Cardiff, Huddersfield and Luton will be more (double, for a guess), and there will be some £1 million over, but you’d expect we’ll be around the likes of Burton, Peterborough, Mansfield and Northampton.
That means when you come to play those teams, the games are going to be tight, especially if both sides are on it (or both sides are not). There were moments during the 1-0 win at the Pirelli I felt we were on it, and moments when we were not. The same went for the visitors and ultimately, it came down to a little bit of quality.
If it came down to absolute quality, we’d have won 3-0 on the balance of genuinely big chances, so while we have won the game, and kept a clean sheet, I still feel there is more to come from this embryonic ‘Skubala 2.0’ squad that we’re seeing. We didn’t have big squad churn when we faced Reading on the opening day, and now we’re moving into autumn bedding in a number of new signings. It’s been a period of upheaval, underpinned by a little stability, but now I feel we’re moving forward, and not from a midtable position proclaiming things can only get better.
With two suspended, there were changes. I was surprised that Adam Jackson got the nod over Tom Hamer, but only in as much as both being strong over the early part of the season. There was a switch up top as well, rather than Oscar Thorn starting, we moved Reeco over to the right and Frankie Okoronkwo onto the left. Freddie Draper, a shining light in the early part of the season, also missed out, with hard-working Ben House coming in behind James Collins.
One aspect of our performances recently has been the quick start, and once again, we got at Burton nice and early. Ben House seemingly had two chances, the first a header from a Darikwa cross. It’s never easy to get trajectory and power on a cross, not from ten yards out, so the fact it seemed like a tame header was more due to circumstance than a poor effort. Those watching at home saw him fire another effort horribly wide when seemingly free six yards out, but those in the ground will have merely seen it as being called offside anyway.
The game began to settle a little from that point, and Burton showed what a half decent side they are with patches of good play. I kept hearing about them being in the bottom four at the beginning of the game, but remember they’d played two games fewer than we have. Their position might be a fair indication, but let’s assume they’d picked up just two points, we’d actually have played a team in 16th, rather than 21st. Not the strongest, but not the obvious relegation fodder you expect from a bottom four outfit.
No, they played it around nicely, all going through the League One Zack de la Rocha lookalike, Charlie Webster. He purrs on the ball, whenever I see him I’m impressed. In a top ten side, he’d be getting goals and assists on a regular basis, and it took 180 minutes of me seeing him this season to finally have a gripe, which I’ll come to. Whenever he got the ball they looked decent, but the running of Kegs Chauke impressed me as well.
For all their possession, it was ‘same old, same old’ for the goal. We’ve scored the first goal in nine of our 11 matches this season, and scored in the first half in all but one of our league matches. Last season, we finished as leading set piece scorers in the division, and while we’ve only got three in League One this season, the top number is only five. It was almost inevitable we’d score in the first half from a set piece.
And so it came to pass. Tom Bayliss, as good as anyone with a dead ball in this division (and I do not say that lightly), whipped in a delicious delivery that saw Bradley come from nowhere, away from his marker, to head his third goal of the season. It was the 34-year-old’s birthday and he celebrated with a textbook move, straight off the training ground. Once again, City led 1-0 in a League One match.
When that has happened previously, we’ve been in for some pretty tough second periods. Northampton battered us, Bolton laid siege, with ten men we almost repelled Mansfield for the duration, but the pattern has become familiar. We take a lead, and usually then let the opposition try to break us down. I don’t think we ‘just sit back’ as people think, but game state changes. I want to explain why, for those at the back who didn’t listen last time.
At 0-0, we want to win the game, as do the opposition (usually). Therefore, you have two teams looking to score their way. We press high, look to force errors and pick up the pieces. Doing that can be dangerous – if the press doesn’t work, you can end up being carved open. If you’re good with the press, as we are, you don’t usually lose the ball, so it’s good, but there is risk. Burton want to play out a little from the back, but also like to go back to front quick. There is a certain two-dimension to their attack. Once a team scores, it changes the level of risk they need to take. Burton weren’t ‘there for the taking’ with ten men, they still had their full complement. However, they need to work harder now to score, so they may take risks. That means we can be a little lighter with the press and wait for better chances on the counter, as they commit more forward.
That’s game state and how it changes an approach.
It can be frustrating and it felt that way for the final 20 minutes of the first half. It was all Burton, and we struggled in possession. I know Michael said we played with inverted wingers, but I wasn’t a huge fan of Reeco on the right. He is a player who has pace and trickery and can beat a man, but on the right, he had to cut inside and, more often than not, we went backwards to start another attack. It meant we retained possession, but for supporters hoping to see a second goal, it got a little tough to watch.
Our opponents felt they needed to get back into the game and focused hard on levelling things, but without any real luck. Going back to us ‘sitting back’ – it can be a real millstone when you’re bad at it. Lincoln City 25/26 are not bad at it. In fact, we’re very good at repelling opposition, getting blocks and clearances in, and it restricts opponents to long shots and half chances. Before the break, Shade curled narrowly wide for them, Wickens palmed a cross away before a block, and generally we kept our shape well.
It’s important to note that often, the defensive effort was a full team display. Ben House was beyond tireless in the ten, and you could see why he got recalled. Frankie Okoronkwo chased back numerous times, and was even on hand with the odd clearance deep in his own half. That’s in addition to the back four, almost faultless in their efforts to repel any tepid Burton attack.
There was a huge talking point before halftime. Webster’s deflected long-range strike went wide, delivering a corner. His deep delivery was put back in by Lofthouse, sparking a goalmouth scramble and penalty appeals. Wickens punched it clear, Bradley turned his back to block a shot and the ball was rifled at him. Does it strike his arm? Yes. Is his arm in an unnatural position? No. He can’t get his body away at all, and on the replay, he even lifts his arms away from the ball to avoid a penalty. I’m not sure it’s even one you could say ‘might be given’ under other circumstances, because he does everything to avoid a penalty.
It was the last action of the first half, meaning once again, we went in 1-0 ahead at the break having perhaps been chuffed to hear the official’s whistle. A word on the referee, Matthew Corlett – he did a solid job all game. No complaints, all the bookings seemed valid and I didn’t have any cause to make a note on him as the game progressed.