Match Thread: Lincoln City v Yeovil Town | Page 17 | Vital Football

Match Thread: Lincoln City v Yeovil Town

Poor today, but unlike previous Lincoln sides, poor doesn't necessarily equate to losses. We have a knack of digging something out from somewhere. We lacked any composure at times. Even easy passes weren't making it.

As quite an aggressive side, and I mean that in terms of work rate, pressing, tempo etc, Yeovil were the complete opposite to us. Despite Way saying before the game that managers needn't worry about Yeovil not giving it a go, they didn't, did they? You don't see many teams timewasting at 1-1 when they've got nothing to play for.

Made it hard for ourselves, nothing quite seemed to fall for us. Rhead won everything in the air but it always seemed to fall either side of Green and Palmer.
 
Sorry, but for me Billy Knott is not good enough for this Lincoln team, he may punch the badge and act to the fans but for me he isn’t good enough.
 
Luke is right, nothing fell for us all afternoon. Every loose ball and deflection seemed to end up with a Yeovil player.

Yeovil were a terrible side, total rubbish. The only player they had worthy of the name was the lad who scored - and then dived up in the air like a salmon in the second half. The goal was a complete sclaff too - how did that end up in the net?

Great goal by Pett, great technique. Awful penalty by Green, poor technique. His run-up was only just not from the Ministry of Funny Run-ups, marked by poor poise and body language. Quite how he missed the rebound is beyond me, my granny could have scored. Let Palmer take them from now on.
 
I'm holding my hands up and admitting I really couldn't see what Tom Pett added to the squad. The few games I've seen him he's looked completely at sea and didn't seem to know what he was doing. Today was another story. Cometh the hour ... he has a bit to prove yet but non-one can deny the quality of that goal. Under pressure, changed feet and still had the composure and instinct to find the top corner when it could so easily have ended up over the stand. Well done Tom and welcome to LCFC .. at last.
 
A bit of crawl(ey) over the line in the end (apologies!). Not the sort of performance you really want heading into the play-offs, but at least we are there.

Our reward for crawling over ther line? Exeter in the play-offs. The one everyone wanted to avoid. Miles away and only a handful of away tickets available. Having said that at 20 minutes left I would have snapped your arm off for Exeter in the playoffs! We know we can beat them!

The first half was up there as one of the worst under the Cowleys. It felt like a pre season game full of players that had never played with each other before. No one really seemed to be doing their role, simple passes we’re missing their mark, no one was moving into space, we lacked width, set pieces were ineffectual and it was a very one dimensional plan. Other than the penalty miss I can’t really remember us having a chance and we can consider ourselves a bit lucky to only go in at half time only one down. I still don’t really know how their goal came about and I’m still trying to work it out from the replay! I’m not sure if it was down to the occasion and the players being nervous? Yeah we’ve been in big games before, but, often we were the underdogs. Maybe that added expected pressure unsettled a few people.

Second half we came out far better, with more intent. Cowley’s words work again. Admittedly we didn’t actually create an awful lot, but we were knocking on the door. In my opinion the big change was bringing Anderson in. He offered us pace, width and directness. When Pett came on I, like everyone around me, was wondering why he was bought on. Boy he proved us wrong. His goal was sensational. The way he quickly moved the ball from his on to his right foot and the technique of the finish was amazing. I genuinely thought it was going wide, but he some how managed to bend it right in the top corner.

Following the goal the ref may aswell blown his whistle. Both teams were happy to take a point. If I was a Yeovil fan I would have been livid. Even at 1-1 with 5 to go they weren’t pushing for a goal (suited us!). To travel all that way and see a half-hearted performance like that at the end of the game would have been very disappointing. I was very worried when eardley went off, hopefully not too serious. He may not have his best game, but he’s still a cut above the rest. Bossie, Woodyard and rhead all did their jobs very well.

I think these games highlight what we miss without habergam and frecklington in the team. The former is very good at knowing when to get forward down the flank and is solid at defending at full-back. Freck is very good at creating space in the middle of the park and playing balls across the pitch which is key to how we play. Also, he’s always there to play a simple one-two from a throw in.

Whatever happens from here, what a fantastic season it’s been!
 
Scotimp said:
Luke is right, nothing fell for us all afternoon. Every loose ball and deflection seemed to end up with a Yeovil player.

Yeovil were a terrible side, total rubbish. The only player they had worthy of the name was the lad who scored - and then dived up in the air like a salmon in the second half. The goal was a complete sclaff too - how did that end up in the net?

Great goal by Pett, great technique. Awful penalty by Green, poor technique. His run-up was only just not from the Ministry of Funny Run-ups, marked by poor poise and body language. Quite how he missed the rebound is beyond me, my granny could have scored. Let Palmer take them from now on.
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Why not Whitehouse? Every penalty he’s taken has been good iirc
 
imps_joe said:
Our reward for crawling over ther line? Exeter in the play-offs. The one everyone wanted to avoid. Miles away and only a handful of away tickets available. Having said that at 20 minutes left I would have snapped your arm off for Exeter in the playoffs! We know we can beat them!
Click to expand...

Hang on, not everybody!

Far from it, in my opinion its the tie that gives the Imps the best possible chance of progressing.
 
If we do make it, we're guaranteed a much larger attendance than in the Checkatrade and probably, outnumbered.
 
Just to illustrate further what an impressive achievement this is, take a quick look at our final 12 games:

Mansfield (A): a side chasing automatic promotion at that point
Chesterfield (A): fighting relegation (relegated)
Grimsby (H): fighting relegation (stayed up by 5 points)
Morecambe (A): fighting relegation (stayed up on goal difference)
Exeter (H): chasing automatic promotion
Carlisle (A): chasing the play-offs
Port Vale (A): fighting relegation (stayed up by 1 point)
Wycombe (H): chasing automatic promotion
Colchester (H): chasing the play-offs
Coventry (A): chasing automatic promotion / play-offs
Accrington (A): champions-elect
Yeovil (H): The only team of the 12 with nothing to play for.

Our record in those games: P12 W6 D4 L2 F18 A11 Pts22

Almost two points per game from a very tough set of fixtures.

We played 7 games against promotion rivals and only lost one (Accrington). That bodes well for the play-offs.

'A Cowley team gets better over the second half of a season' also holds up again: 37 points from the first 23 games, 38 from the final 23.
 
It shows how things have turned out, just how important was Palmers last minute goal against Mansfield. I know you can look at lots of games with 'if only's', but that one stands out.
 
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