That, ladies and gentlemen, is how to beat a strong, expensive squad of pretty much championship players.
It was certainly no flair game. We were never going to outplay them. It is the polar opposite to last week where we were clearly the more skilful side and could play nice, attacking passages. It reminded me of times in our first season back in the league, where we were clearly weaker in some areas against some teams but still managed to effectively counter the threat. There’ll be plenty more games like this when we come up against the top opposition. We won’t always come out on top, but it won’t be for the lack of trying.
If we’d had an off day, we could have been three down in the first twenty minutes, but we managed to weather the storm and clawed back control. Once we got hold of them, we didn’t let them go.
If the team could speak it would have said “Whoah there! Where do you think you’re going? Do you know who we are? We’re Lincoln City. Behave yourselves. You’ll sing our song now.”
Then boom! Half asleep and done like kippers. Surely we can’t get many more out of those crafty slip-it-down-the-side free kicks, can we?
They were flustered. They didn’t know what to do. They certainly weren’t prepared for it and I suspect many of their players have probably never encountered such tactics.
That’s not to assume we were direct. There was none of that. We were organised and strong and still looked to pass it out of danger and move forward. They had no way through and were frustrated.
The set pieces become so important in matches where you don’t get many goal scoring opportunities. How Harry found himself in that space, I’ll never know. 2-0. Another goal from a corner, Notty will be pleased!
So, of course, we sit back, take our time, reorganise, and do not budge. Well, maybe a slight shuffle, but Vickers was there to tidy up.
That was as good a team performance as any under the Cowleys. Plan B was plan A today and both have worked so far.
If league one is anything like last year, there’ll be a couple of leagues within a league. The top sides who are in between championship quality, and the also rans. If we can pick up the odd result against the top sides, like today, and do well against the rest, we’ll have had a very good season.