Match Thread: Lincoln City v Northampton Town | Page 16 | Vital Football

Match Thread: Lincoln City v Northampton Town

The sending off - not seen a replay, but at the time thought it was a straight red. Still do. He was running in to the challenge for the ball, not actually there, and leading with an elbow - red card every time. The issue is, why was he standing off, he should have been up with their player or a midfielder should have been challenging. I’ll watch a replay, to see if my mind changes.
 
It took most of the game and being two down to start showing some offensive intent.
Front foot football my ar...

So frustrating to think that we could have had Cowleys back instead of this.

Futsal coach unfortunately can not cut it in league one.
 
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The game - a battle between two sides likely to finish somewhere around 16th in the table. The game was pretty even overall, the difference being we made a daft mistake to gift them a goal, and they showed that they can finish an opportunity (unlike Adelakun) - so, they deserve their three points. Might have been a totally different outcome if we had the injured personnel available - but our limitations are glaringly obvious and it’s up to debate whether a return of 2-3 players would in itself be enough.
 
I didn't get what I was watching at first. The game started at 100mph from both teams and we did start ok then after the goal seemed to laspe in to a mishmash of nobody really understanding what they were supposed to be doing for the rest of the half.

Second half I thought we started again with good intensity but again conceded to what I thought was a brilliantly worked goal from them.

Then it went like the wild west, we must of made at least 56 substitutions because I just lost who was on and who was off and who was playing where.

To be fair we did go two up top which is the only way to play if you don't have proper wing backs, and we don't.

If I were Head of Recruitment I would be tabling a bid for their centre forward first thing Monday morning.

He is exactly the type of player we need up front, big, strong ,aggressive, can hold the ball up, can run at you with the ball and can challenge in the air.

Until we've got someone like that to play alongside Draper, House, Moylan or whoever it may be in a 2 up top then we are going nowhere but backwards.
 
Imps2018 said:
I do disagree with a lot of the comments here. I was at the game and don’t believe we deserved to lose.

Jensen was overconfident having just made a great save and made a mistake. He’s young, he’ll learn we move on.

Skubala didn’t have the set up correct from our set piece for the counter for the 2nd and Northampton worked it very well. He’ll learn and adapt.

The turning point of the game was when Simpson cleaned out Eyoma just after our goal. It was a straight red challenge. He was late with no intention of playing the ball. He wanted to hurt the player. As soon as that happened, they kicked, tripped and time wasted everything and the ref had no control. I don’t think O’Connor threw an elbow from what I could see - but their players screamed at the ref and he crumbled. And that’s why we lost today.

We’re doing the right things, other than set piece counters I don’t think we looked troubled defensively. Going forwards, our players just need a goal. They’re young, they need confidence. We created some fantastic chances, think Adelakun 1 on 1. With confidence, the passes will be better, the first touches will work, the legs feel fresher, you get more luck and we close and push better

I still believe when it clicks, this team is capable of beating anyone in this league. I don’t think recruitment has been bad. There’s only 1 mistake I can see and that’s because we didn’t understand the extent of the injury he had. I stick with, if we had fit strikers - we would be having very different conversations, and very little about the team would have actually changed.

Northampton shat bricks when we actually attacked (I mean had the ball under proper control, not a long ball). They couldn’t handle Bishop’s running or Hamilton’s constant pressing or Adelakun dropping deep to spread the play or Lasse’s constant running.

I don’t think we’re far away at all - but I look forward to the replies saying I don’t know what I’m on about.
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How dare you attend a football match and then come on here and offer a balanced view of proceedings!
 
Back home after another frustrating match. I'm not going to complain about the effort tonight. That was there to see. What I didn't see was any quality from us nor, and this is more of a worry, any real plan. The game itself couldn't be described as boring and yes we were looking to play forward a bit more, it was just so much hit and hope.
We had spells and especially that period after their second goal where we got one back and looked capable of getting at least one more. Then our momentum was lost firstly by the injury to Erhahon, then the red card to Paudie.
From my position that decision looked harsh as it seemed to be just two players going for an ariel challenge with their player then doing a dying swan act. It also seemed that the referee wasn't going to blow at all until their players started to complain. I will say however that I was some distance away so will reserve full judgement until I've seen it again.
Overall though pretty poor again with too many players just trying their best, but their best doesn't cut it at the level we are trying to get to.
It's been a pretty horrendous December for us and January doesn't get any easier. Four games scheduled starting with the away game at Blackpool on Monday then a trip to Wycombe followed by home games against Derby and Peterborough. Would any of us be that surprised if we were discussing 7 losses on the bounce come the end of January?
I haven't read the thread yet but do wonder if any of those who campaigned for the removal of Michael Appleton for no better reason than he was a bit of a mardy arse have poked their heads above the parapet again?

Anyway I still bought a ticket for Wycombe so we move on as ever...
 
I get excited when we win and rather depressed when we lose .I think I'm posting on the wrong site .
 
imps_joe said:
I think a lot would agree with this. However, how often have you seen us even try and play like that in the last 5-6 matches? That’s the frustrating thing!
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The frustrating thing is having to be 2 down before actually showing real attacking intent. More frustrating is that we looked decent when we did. So, why the fuck do we set up so negatively regardless of who we are playing?!
Skubala can say all he wants about front-foot football, it seems only he can see it.
Tonight was embarrassing, Ole after 40 minutes against Northampton, we weren't playing Manchester City for fucks sake.
 
imps_joe said:
It’s a harsh red but it’s not getting over turned. O’Connor had his arm raised and the fa will back decisions made by refs.
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I agree. Haven’t seen it back but in real time it looked like he led with his forearm and made some sort of contact. Probably enough for a yellow / red decision for the ref.
 
I am still of the view of give Skubala more time but it is worrying. I appreciate we have three key attacking players missing but I don't recall a new coach/manager has come in before and essentially kept the same formation and not introduced any discernable way of playing. I honestly don't know what the intention is tactically? If it is a case of get it out wide and across goal, we have no instinctive striker to make the runs? Just seems bizarre to me we are still going with 5 2 3 (it's definitely not 3 4 3).

It is very odd and Hamilton is completely wasted as a left winger. Surely have him in a three with erhahan and Bishop and try and dominate the midfield? That said, Bishop really needs to start imposing himself more or he is in danger of being another frustrating player who has ability, but no consistency and will disapper without fanfare once is contract expires.

My other reason for concern is the idea that all our problems will be solved in January. We certainly will be in a better position with draper back and moylan in the squad. However, we are hoping for instant impact from both. There must be a high chance Draper is knackered by March with the extra months of football he's played. Also, we can't have much cash, surely must need to move players on and there is no guarantee of success with other signings. Whilst we have some recent successes in January transfers (Erhahon, Gilks, scully, Edun, Poole, house) alot of them actually started to shine the following season. Might not be the panacea some are hoping for. Guess best bet would be Loans and hope for some more norton-cuffy's rather than Conor Coventry's.
 
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I refrained from commenting after the game because I was disappointed with the result and, to be honest, wasn’t quite sure what to make of the Imps performance. However, a couple of things really struck me and this is my honest opinion/reading of last night. First, I really feel for Michael Skubala. He has come in at the worst possible time for any new coach/manager with so many key injuries. I don’t entirely blame him for not changing things on the pitch if he felt he doesn’t have the players to achieve what he wants. I believe he felt that at least we could pick up enough points to keep us in a reasonable position until he ‘perhaps’ had the time with the players (which he hasn’t had) and possibly some new players who can play how he wants. I think last night (so close to the window) he actually had a go at trying something different (which we have all been screaming for). Unfortunately it didn’t go our way, but at least he tried something and found out a bit more about a number of players and their abilities, playing a different way. One thing that stood out for me was how poor some of the basic skills were in some players. How many times did you see the ball played down the line go out? How many times did you see a ball mis-controlled on the touchline? How many headers did you see which were based on pressure and panic instead of being directed at our own players, and were picked off by the opposition which sprang an attack against us. Everyone talks about bravery on the ball and composure with the ball. Movement off the ball is a key part of the attacking game yet how many times have we seen players who cannot time their runs, or even make the effort to get on a ball. These are all things which need to be addressed or we will end up on the wrong end of results more often than not.
That being said, I actually enjoyed bits of last nights game. MS clearly tried something different and the players tried to respond by putting in a shift. They played some very ‘enthusiastic’ football with some passion and not a little skill at times. Unfortunately the game went against them and you have to say well done Northampton for taking advantage of our weaknesses. Wasn’t over-impressed with the ref either - he was fine first half, but when the pressure was on he bottled it and gave in to the shenanigans that too many teams and players use these days, but we seem to end up on the wrong side of. Perhaps we are too honest 🤔. Either that or (did I really say this 😳) bring back the Cowleys to make us street-wise again to level the playing field. No, at least let’s give MS the opportunity of a window to see who he can bring in and, more importantly, what he can achieve with the players.
Just to add, I understand some of what I read on here last night, but was actually saddened by the amount of downright negativity from a number of posters, some of which made me more upset and angry than the performance from the team. Balance in all things, not just glass empty.
 
hulloutpost said:
True, but I think the problems the whole side are encountering across the board make that a relatively minor side issue.
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True, it’s more the case of Roughan a centre half being pushed out to left wing back and ultimately he doesn’t have a forward thinking bone in his body, same with Burroughs. Fans get on his back because he has to go back every time he has the ball.

I don’t agree you can play wing backs and wingers, never seen it work and 5-2-3 just doesn’t work. We looked marginally better going 5-3-2 for a short period until ill discipline kicked in again.

Just have to hold our hands up, the summer we prepared a squad to be ultra defensive, recruitment backed this up. Prior mid-point we would like to adopt a style the summer players aren’t good enough to adapt to. We just have to be patient and wait for the next overhaul and allow Skubala to get the players he needs.

In all of the above I am slightly bemused how we haven’t tried anything different since sacking Kennedy.
 
Imps2018 said:
Bolton, until Mandriou got 2 kicks from a lad and decided to take his Achilles out of his body. And you could see all confidence go from the team then.

I’ll admit I don’t see us often because I’m based away so a lot here will have seen us more often.
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The Bolton game where we ended up with 28% possession and failed to even win a corner all game?
 
It all seems a bit odd at the moment. Nothing epitomises that more than starting a game with one player up front in a game you need to be on the front foot from the start whilst having four forwards on the sub bench. The argument that none of the subs are good enough is one but somebody has brought them to the football club whether they were the first choices or not. To add to that I think Shodipo has been ridiculously underused.
Apparently we played well up until the first goal...well umm...i guess everything is relative. At leat we got our first goal in open play, since the heating was turned on, with a great header by Eyoma. He has been exceptional since he came back in the team, heaven knows why we haven't been able to get the best out of him over the years although he is still only young and his best football is almost certainly still to come.
I would agree with the opinion that we look like we need a manager in control rather than a coach with very limited experience with a first team. There must have been very strong reasons for us to appoint him so fingers crossed it turns round sooner rather than later. It does however put a bit more pressure on our esteemed DOF to make the right decisions. We have had bad luck with long term injuries, although that is part of the professional game, but even so the recruitment over the last two or three seasons has been very average. I am sure we will be told repeatedly how we are competing with teams with bigger budgets but the January decisions need to be good.
January looks a really difficult month for us and by the end of it we may well be grateful of the three points we pinched off Orient. We certainly need to be better than we are at the end of December.
 
tell_it_like_it_is said:
It all seems a bit odd at the moment. Nothing epitomises that more than starting a game with one player up front in a game you need to be on the front foot from the start whilst having four forwards on the sub bench. The argument that none of the subs are good enough is one but somebody has brought them to the football club whether they were the first choices or not. To add to that I think Shodipo has been ridiculously underused.
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I was about to post the same. He's the most natural of our currently available 'strikers' and should have had way more game time, especially after bagging a crucial goal against Vale
 
I am sick of hearing the away fan's celebrating when I leave the ground , what ever happened to fortress Sincil Bank? ( if it ever existed)
 
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