The Imps dropped out of the final cup competition of the season last night, going down 2-0 at home against a strong Huddersfield side.
Alfie May, Dion Charles and Joe Taylor all got minutes against us, while we were without Ben House and, after 15 minutes, James Collins.
The game wasn’t won and lost purely on the quality of the forwards, though, with City far too slow out of the blocks. It was a good 20 minutes before we got going, and that’s something our head coach acknowledged when chatting to John Helm after the game.
“I think we started the game a bit slow to be honest,” Michael admitted. “We were too slow out the blocks and then I thought the second period of the first half we looked good. We got on top of it.
“We started to win more duels, pressed more aggressively, got on top of the game, caused them some problems, had a big chance. I think it was Freddie that could have scored in the first half with a big chance.”
After getting back into the tie, City were undone by yet another weak piece of officiating, combined with weak defending.
“Second half, I think it’s a really soft free kick, first of all,” Michael said. “The referee, when he sees that back, he’ll be really disappointed with that. We’ve conceded that free kick and then we’re chasing, and when you’re chasing, it’s always going to be difficult against these types of teams.”
The goal may have changed the complexion of the game, but it was those changes that upset the early rhythm. While Ivan Varfolomeev, Erik Ring and Ryler Towler didn’t have bad games, it took the collective a while to get going, and that needs to change when new faces come in.
“I thought for the first 20, we made nine changes, and I thought that showed, but after 20 minutes, we started to get on top of the game. We looked more aggressive. We looked more front-footed. We wanted to play forward more. We were higher. We were jumping on things. We were counterpressing better.
“We have to start like that when they come into the team. Then we started to move the ball, make passes in the right areas. The game looked more even.”
In the end, two soft goals have undone us, despite a couple of big chances. Okoronkwo and Draper could both have notched goals, but it is the two conceded that saw we didn’t get a chance to progress to the next round.
“I thought the set piece knocked the stuffing out of us a little bit,” Michael added. “The free kick felt like it came out of nothing. We’ve conceded on that. That’s too soft. Both goals are a little bit too soft. The second one is because we’re chasing and trying to keep people up and keep people high so we lose our structure.
“The first one is too soft for me.”
The Imps now have a week off, with Barnsley due to visit the Bank next Tuesday. Fans will be hoping for a strong official, and stronger defending when the Tykes come to town.