Match Thread: Lincoln City v Portsmouth | Page 17 | Vital Football

Match Thread: Lincoln City v Portsmouth

That was dreadful, a toothless performance, no fight, no desire, no teamwork, no strategy, no movement; completely outplayed by Portsmouth. We were given a football lesson: overrun at times, weakly surrendering at others.

The midfield was pathetic, Sorensen and Fiorini cannot play together, neither competes or puts in a tackle. They both probably have twice the skill level of Alan Power when he was here, but by comparison they don’t battle and their belief and commitment is non existent.

Saturday v Accrington is massive: changes are needed, give a chance to squad members who really want to wear the shirt.
 
Don't give a monkeys ass what the other lot do, this Saturday was always going to be the more winnable game, get behind the team them don't get at them, or it will achieve nothing. UTI.
 
I would certainly expect a more spirited performance on Saturday. It will be interesting to see what Accy do, whether they park the bus or go all out. Or do what Donny successfully did, stiffly is for 75 and then dominate the last 15. Saturday will be interesting. We need to get our noses in front, and hopefully early on, to ease any nerves.
 
Had we gone in 0-0 at HT, we would have had a chance. That is the way I saw the first half. They were nothing special, and were there for the taking. They scored before the break, and our heads dropped.
 
I'm not sure there is much sugar coating that can be done with that. Worst performance for a very, very long time and for the first time I saw players that had almost seemed to have given up, players who didn't want the ball, players who didn't want to be brave ..... the list could go on.

Without Bridcutt we also seem to lack any real leaders on the field and looked like a team who had lost confidence in the plan.

Yes, Draper was a positive, but only a small one as aside from a few smart lay-offs he was generally ineffective, but ineffective is a word we could use about a lot of tonight and he and McGrandles are possibly the only players who could emerge with any credit.

Appleton seems not to trust him, but at least Adelakun is a genuine winger and we may be back to him starting again as an option. I'm also not sure what Max Sanders is thinking sat on the bench watching some of this, but he is another who is surely due a start as I agree with several other posts that Fiorini and Sorensen in the same team just isn't working.

Draw a line under this and move on, but we need some positive performances in next few weeks as some sizeable cracks in what has previously seemed to be unconditional goodwill from supporters are beginning to show.
 
RedImp73 said:
I'm not sure there is much sugar coating that can be done with that. Worst performance for a very, very long time and for the first time I saw players that had almost seemed to have given up, players who didn't want the ball, players who didn't want to be brave ..... the list could go on.

Without Bridcutt we also seem to lack any real leaders on the field and looked like a team who had lost confidence in the plan.

Yes, Draper was a positive, but only a small one as aside from a few smart lay-offs he was generally ineffective, but ineffective is a word we could use about a lot of tonight and he and McGrandles are possibly the only players who could emerge with any credit.

Appleton seems not to trust him, but at least Adelakun is a genuine winger and we may be back to him starting again as an option. I'm also not sure what Max Sanders is thinking sat on the bench watching some of this, but he is another who is surely due a start as I agree with several other posts that Fiorini and Sorensen in the same team just isn't working.

Draw a line under this and move on, but we need some positive performances in next few weeks as some sizeable cracks in what has previously seemed to be unconditional goodwill from supporters are beginning to show.
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Agreed... but we were equally bad against oxford.
 
Jules said:
Had we gone in 0-0 at HT, we would have had a chance. That is the way I saw the first half. They were nothing special, and were there for the taking. They scored before the break, and our heads dropped.
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0-0 at HT would have been a relief as we showed nothing in the first half. Second half we were much better were having a good spell when we conceded a really bad 2nd and that was game over. Pompey were more competitive and made their luck.
 
JT_LCFC said:
Tough watch…and tough times at the minute. It will improve; the club structure is good and the board will not want us to sink without trace.

No pace is evident, no player can get beyond the forward line and we go back and put ourselves under pressure. On recent performance Sorensen and Fiorini are far too lightweight for this standard of football, and give the ball away far too often. Bishop talented but not one I’d take in the trenches currently.

Stick with it, it will get better I hope. Lessons from the summer will have been learnt, especially seeing Jez slumping further into his chair this evening.
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Clearly no pace, for sure.
Not getting beyond the forward line is a massive problem, but I don't think it's just lack of pace. Watch when we do get it wide and going forward. The likes of Fiorini and Sorenson show absolutely no desire to get in the box, they are jogging forward just waiting for a slow ball back. The midfield is just full of nice players, all in the same mould. Only McGrandles offers anything different and he's stuck in the holding role because Bridcutt is knackered.
WTF is with our dead ball game? Virtually every free kick goes backwards! I know banging it in the box isn't MA style, and we don't have many big lads. But FFS, surely we've got more than a 5 yard ball back to the centre-half!!
I'll take McGrandles, Montsma, Maguire, Robson and the keeper as full on league 1 regulars. Bridcutt, Jackson and Walsh are very good players, but on the treatment table far too much. Poole and Bishop are decent squad players. The rest you can keep, apart from our own young lads.
"Comfortable league 1"
 
I'd sooner see a side that tries to play the ball but I've reached a point where I'm frustrated with what I'm seeing.

I don't mind the continual playing out from the back, even when it looks dangerous. I accept that sometimes possession will be squandered in bad positions.

I accept that a lot of sides pressure our centre backs and centre midfield in order that they cough the ball up. But they're simply not learning to adapt, despite by now what has been an awful lot of practice.

That's bad enough but there's far too much unnecessary sideways and backwards passing. We don't need the mythical "Plan B" we need a training ground routine that breaks a high press.

You could rightly say that this season we miss Grant, Edun and Johnson dreadfully (I won't include Rogers because we were already top of the league before he even arrived). And this team would look a whole lot better if Bridcutt, Walsh, Hopper and Scully were fit enough to be in it.

But here we have the problem of the injury-prone again, because the former two are constantly in the treatment room and I've given up any hope of Walsh playing more than 3 games before he has to have another 3 months off.

Their back-ups should be good enough to fill in but they're inconsistent and lacking in confidence and one in particular (no names) is a worth a goal start to the opposition right now. I assume things will click back into place with him eventually.

Our summer recruitment wasn't so great, the pre-season was non-existent, the squad has been beset with injuries to key players, and we have a team full of young players in a rut. This will auto-correct even without a January window so we won't be relegated, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating to see players constantly making the same mistakes.

It's not a time for recriminations, but tonight there was only one positive to take from the game and we all know who that was so it doesn't even need to be mentioned.

There's always Saturday.
 
Picked a bad day to join these little chats. Awful game yes I was there. I was swayed by those discussions of old games at Donny Yes I was there as well. My first game was Imps v Mansfield 0-0 Feb 1975 just so you know I've suffered as well. Enjoyed Draper chucking his weight about, Sorenson why? get rid of him.
 
Just got back, and that was a horrible watch...

I think the most worrying thing to me apart from everything else mentioned above is just the lack of desire to compete physically from a number of our players. There were at least 4 players tonight who were guilty of bottling out of challenges and not wanting to get stuck in. Fiorini, Maguire, Bishop and Nlundulu were all guilty of it imho and it simply isn't good enough when you are in a game where you are not being allowed to play, in those circumstances you have to get stuck in and try and make something happen.

Also the players body language after the second goal was simply dreadful, they gave every indication of accepting that the game was over. The only reason we got any joy towards the end going forward was because they simply stopped pressing us and defended their own 25 yard line and backwards allowing us to come forward finally but apart from the absolute sitter Nlundulu missed we created absolutely nothing of any note even in this period.

We might have been out thought tactically, we might have been crippled by injuries to our starters, we might have been up against a team with a bigger squad and better paid players but absolutely none of that has any impact on our desire to compete and tackle and give everything for the result. We showed very very little in that department apart from one or two players, Monstma, Draper and Poole were probably the three I would give some credit to on this score otherwise we looked far too much like a team ready to roll over at the first sign of adversity for my liking...
 
is think it was really good of the starting 11 and the tactics to distract the imps faithful on the dilemma of who to applaud! In the end it was made no contest, although detention for Draper as he did his best to buck the plans.

joking aside yes we have injuries yes our resources are not the same as teams like ex premier league Portsmouth but we are our own worst enemy. What don’t like like about the the current occupant of the dug out is the insistence of playing it his way.

I suspect in any other industry it would lead to the sack.

I accidentally watched a Netflix film about Brian Clough. In the end it was rather enjoyable. In many ways the brothers are nothing like Clough and Taylor yet in other ways they are very much the same. Appleton had big shoes to fill which was always a thankless task - he has done very well just wish the passing about at the back habit stops. This is league 1 not la Liga.

if we think back to our biggest game last year it all started so well with Blackpool pissing about at the back. There is a reason why league one footballers are league one footballers.

i just hope these reinforcements are too draw fast paced hero’s - we need them. Some of the current lot are not up to it
 
Can anyone explain the drop ball incident in the first half. Ref stopped play as he thought one of theirs was injured (fair enough). But then he didn't allow us to compete at all for the dropped ball and their player could just put a free ball into our box. Can he say we can't compete for the ball? I get it if it's then just knocked to a keeper or put out, but not allowing an unchallenged attack.
 
Interesting comments from MA post match. He is clearly very far from happy with many of his players, justifiably so. I don’t think its individual players, I think it’s that the ones he has can’t play together. Too many footballers and not enough fighters. We need a real ball winner in midfield (as well as Bridcutt) and all our midfield players are just powder-puff. Hopefully one is on the way in January, as are at least two strikers, including one speedy winger. Do we need another left sided CB as well🤔
 
Implode said:
Can anyone explain the drop ball incident in the first half. Ref stopped play as he thought one of theirs was injured (fair enough). But then he didn't allow us to compete at all for the dropped ball and their player could just put a free ball into our box. Can he say we can't compete for the ball? I get it if it's then just knocked to a keeper or put out, but not allowing an unchallenged attack.
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I think that is the rule now.. drop ball is to one team or the other.
 
The next three games ar massive defeat to Accy does not bear thinking about but on our current home form it is a real possibility.

then the two cup games for me Hartlepools is the biggest game of the season gives us the chance if a big money tie in Round 3.

Just hope MA has a good think and realises current tactics are not working and he starts using Pplan B.
 
Out coached, out fought, and out played.

As Mark Hone said in commentary, we had no plan B if we can't play out from the back. And Portsmouth played just about the best high press against us for a long while.

Problem will be that any upcoming opponent who watches that game will play that way against us, and we have no answer.

Too many players have a poor first touch, which means they receive the ball facing our own goal, and their poor initial control ends up with them passing the ball backwards. Robson, Poole, Fiorini, and Sorensen especially. Conor at least tries to turn with the ball, but that is why he occasionally gets caught in possession.

Eyoma is totally bereft of any confidence. Probably the worst centre back performance I havre seen for a long while.

Yes, we have a few injuries and a mid table budget. But we have the most expensively assembled squad in our history thanks to director investment. We should be doing better rather than praying (like any other team not in promotion places) for January.
 
People can deny it all they like, or make out that the ones saying it aren't real fans but the truth is, Cowley did his homework and came up with a plan and had his players committed to a high press which forced us into mistakes or long towards Raggett. Meanwhile, Appleton still thinks we struggled because of their directness and our inability to win headers or second balls. Portsmouth were not a long ball team, as implied by Appleton and I think this is a lazy assessment of the Cowleys. The manager needs to take just as much of the blame as the players for this one. Where are the 'patterns of play' to work it through midfield?
 
imp73 said:
Hyperbole on steroids
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Maybe, maybe not. We will see and in the end I hope your assessment of my post is correct. Too often, though, we have been guilty of not accepting the danger we are in until it is too late to do anything about it, or meekly going like lambs to the slaughter, as we did in 1999 when a home win against Wycombe would have kept us in this division. We need to be able to battle and grind out results such as the likes of Wimbledon do season after season. Learn how to do that now and make it part of the DNA of the club when their is still plenty to play for this season, and we will be fine and can look forward to playing the likes of Derby next season. That's what I want to see and I just happen to think Clive back at the helm and providing his leadership in person at The Bank will be a crucial part in making sure that happens.
 
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