Match Thread: Lincoln City v Fleetwood Town | Page 27 | Vital Football

Match Thread: Lincoln City v Fleetwood Town

Poole was signed with next season in mind with TJ going back to Spurs. He's impressed me, good going forward, think he has a goal in him too.

Yes, it's been noticeable that when we have a corner or free kick Poole is up there in the opposition box whereas Eyoma is usually the player back covering on the halfway line (where of course his pace is an asset to cover any breakaways).
 
I think we need a couple of postponements soon to get the squad fighting fit.

Crewe on form can be a handful
 
Sanders and Morton were real positives tonight I think Morton will score goals for fun, with so many young players confidence is low and we desperately need a couple of the experienced heads back.

we may well lose to Crewe on Saturday as at present we do not look tight at the back and are shedding goals for fun.

We just have to keep the faith and hopefully MA can turn things round when the likes of Grant, Jackson and Bridcutt return.

UTMI
 
That's the model the club have adopted as being the most sustainable at this (or the next) level, weve done alright with that so far.

Take out through injury 3 (probably now 4) of our most experienced players and leaders, and it becomes more of an issue and that showed tonight.
Or the last 6 or 7 games (since Doncaster). Earlier in the season we didn't have 2 18/19 year old strikers, when we performing really well, conversely, we did have a 17 year old defender, getting rave reviews, who was skinned and subbed one game, and since has sunk without trace for some reason. Funny old game.
 
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As has been pointed out we've now conceded the first goal in the last 5 league games (1 win, 2 draws, 2 defeats).

There have been mathematics professors who've worked out the probabilities for scoring first in professional football assuming relatively well-matched teams and if you score first you're likely to win 2/3 of the time. There's around a 1 in 5 chance of a draw and only a 1 in 10 probability of a defeat.

We're actually slightly over-performing on those numbers so that's another reason why it's important to stop conceding the first goal.
 
I feel that we are making the same Rogers & Johnson consideration that was made with Grant & Payne last season.

Is there room for just the one?
 
Again tonight we could have grabbed a point in a mediocre display, but it wasn't to be. Yet again we have played a side who have defied their league status/form and at times, Fleetwood looked a decent outfit. They ran the show in midfield – Camps, Batty and Rossiter outshone us in there and that's ultimately where the game was lost for us.

Jones yet again failed to take the bull by the horns – where's his early-season form gone? Looked a great player before Christmas, but did little to impress again tonight. Rogers, terrific in little spells, but too often so casual and greedy – bordering on the arrogance Appleton alluded to after the Swindon game. Johnson wasn't involved a great deal either, while Scully was that ineffective it was like playing with a man down at times. He's not a wide player – he's got no pace or trickery. He's a fox in the box.

Edun.... is a lovely player on the eye, with a very cultured left foot, but how many times did he give away possession... again? He wasn't the only one, though. I have never seen so many misplaced passes and Appleton highlighted this in his post-match interview.

Tackles – so many of our players bottled out of tackles tonight, Scully and McGrandles were the worst culprits. But Jackson led by example again at the back and made two particularly impressive tackles/interceptions. And Monstma was better tonight, along with Palmer.

Great to see Morton back and looking very lively. Excellently taken goal as well – after so long out, he could easily have fluffed that chance. That goal alone, and the way he took it, bodes very well for the immediate future. And Sanders was very lively – shame he wasn't brought on earlier.

But what about Archibald? We're two down desperate to get back in the game and he stayed on the bench – did he ever actually warm up? Even at a goal down in the last 10, surely it was worth throwing him on? If's he not fit enough, what's the point of naming him on the bench?

Anyway, back to winning ways against Crewe on Saturday.
 
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The main issue is pretty obvious. Since we kept a clean sheet v Hull, in the league we've conceded 2, 2, 2, 4, 2 and we've conceded the first goal each time. Basically you don't win or even draw too many games if you combine conceding first with conceding that many.

Actually to go draw, win, draw in the first 3 was a decent response but you can't keep scrapping like that over a sustained period.
Have we really conceded 12 goals in 5 games? That in itself tells a story when you consider we had one of the best defences in the league for the first half of the season
 
We don't look like a team that's headed for automatic promotion, and it pains me that supporters of the self-proclaimed big clubs will consider themselves proven correct.

I don't really want to say that in the aftermath of another mediocre home performance as it looks like the sort of reaction to a result I argue against usually, but our home showings just aren't good enough and you can't keep playing badly for long spells and conceding the first goal and expect to win.

It's a shame because apart from being unable to defend on Saturday I thought the team might have turned the corner, but some of the passing tonight in the first hour was absolutely terrible under no pressure.

If they can hang in till the last half dozen games we don't know what might happen but it's hard to think we'll be consistent enough to pull away in the top two.

I blame whoever started that 82/3 comparison thread.

On the ’self-proclaimed big clubs’ the reason they are big is that they have a little (sic) more money than us and bigger squads as a hangover from their glory days a division (or two) higher. That’s why they are where they are. Agree that the home performances just haven’t been good enough, especially when you consider the quality in the side. We could have had a fair cushion by the time of our ‘slump’ and its coming back to bite us now. When you look at Sanders, Bramall and Poole, I can see why MA signed them and bearing in mind they have joined mid-season (when players traditionally don’t fully integrate - look at Hopper this season compared to last) I would expect more with a full pre-season and proper integration into the MA way of playing. However, I remain optimistic that we will have a decent finish this year. Whatever happens, we are not in a relegation scrap and we are in good hands.
 
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When Tayo plays well, Lincoln play well.

He's not (yet) the midfield orchestrator but he's the performance bellwether, when it works for him our passing and movement is better. Tonight it didn't work for him and didn't work for the rest of the team.
I’d go further than that and say when Grant and Tayo play together they have a great understanding or positional sense and their interplay is great, almost telepathic sometimes. I think Edun is badly missing Grant.
 
I think I said at the weekend that we are a season ahead of schedule and I still think that. We have done well and as much as promotion is nice we are not really ready for it. I hope I am wrong and that we regroup and have a great last 10 games (I think it will take that long to get players back.
 
Obviously going through a bad patch at the moment, for the past month maybe, I was really disappointed with last Saturdays loss and the manner it happened in the final seconds, but last night reality struck home that we have a relatively small squad with key injuries which you can cover for only so long. It has caught up with us, and not surprising. Thats not to say of course when we get a few more bodies back we cannot go on another winning run so all is not lost, but the play offs could be our best hope. All sides are going through the two games a week routine so we should be no more tired that the rest of them, but some, not all, may have bigger squads to rotate. We just have to get on with it.
I do believe with the loss our fantastic home support it has effected our home results, the value of which in previous seasons has gained us many crucial last gasp points. Nothing we can do about that but I do believe it is a factor and away teams have benefited from it.
Still been a fantastic season and the structure of the Club from top to bottom promises exciting times ahead.
UTI.
 
Obviously going through a bad patch at the moment, for the past month maybe, I was really disappointed with last Saturdays loss and the manner it happened in the final seconds, but last night reality struck home that we have a relatively small squad with key injuries which you can cover for only so long. It has caught up with us, and not surprising. Thats not to say of course when we get a few more bodies back we cannot go on another winning run so all is not lost, but the play offs could be our best hope. All sides are going through the two games a week routine so we should be no more tired that the rest of them, but some, not all, may have bigger squads to rotate. We just have to get on with it.
I do believe with the loss our fantastic home support it has effected our home results, the value of which in previous seasons has gained us many crucial last gasp points. Nothing we can do about that but I do believe it is a factor and away teams have benefited from it.
Still been a fantastic season and the structure of the Club from top to bottom promises exciting times ahead.
UTI.
I believe that if we can get a couple of good results over the next 3 games then we still have a chance of Automatic promotion. We still have 2 games in hand on Hull,
 
Or the last 6 or 7 games (since Doncaster). Earlier in the season we didn't have 2 18/19 year old strikers, when we performing really well, conversely, we did have a 17 year old defender, getting rave reviews, who was skinned and subbed one game, and since has sunk without trace for some reason. Funny old game.
Certainly Rogers, although technically able, doesn't have much commitment or positional sense. Give Archibald a chance until Harry Anderson is fit - hopefully MA will give him more than the few minutes he had before his injury.