It doesn’t matter, it’s three points.
That’s the phrase I heard from someone coming out of the ground Tuesday night, and they are absolutely right. We needed to get three points and going into the game, I didn’t care how we got them. It may not have been pretty but over the course of the season we have played great football and been on the end of a 1-0 defeat and I know which way I’d rather it go.
The loss to MK Dons on Saturday, and the news of Adam Jackson picking up another injury flooded most peoples timelines going into Tuesday, but there was rare good news coming from the imps’ camp on the injury situation, Joe Walsh looked set to return and he did as he went straight into the starting lineup. Max Sanders also came into the team, as did Chris Maguire. That meant TJ Eyoma shifted out to right-back with Regan Poole and Joe Walsh our centre-half pairing.
We started really well with Cohen Bramall once again causing problems with his pace. TJ Eyoma was getting forward well and created our first goal, a smart ball to Scully by the right-back led to the ball being deflected off the line back to Morgan Whittaker who grabbed his second goal in imps’ colours. Just eight minutes later we doubled our advantage, a neat piece of play involving Chris Maguire and Anthony Scully saw Cohen Bramall net his first imps’ goal (if you don’t count the free-kick last year, which was later given as an own-goal).
When we raced into that two-goal lead, I can’t lie I thought we might end up getting four or five as Morecambe (no offence to Morecambe fans) are the worst side I’ve seen so far at Sincil Bank by quite a long way, but we started to stop doing the basics and giving the ball away easily. As we went into half-time, I did briefly think back to Boxing Day, and as the second-half started you could see the same signs of that day, Morecambe started to create and cause problems for our full-backs. They got their goal with an excellent hit, albeit a scrappy build-up. I’ve seen criticism on social media about our second-half performance, which I understand Morecambe should have scored another with a Josh Griffiths mistake but what I liked from us in the second half we kept the ball well when we needed to, and we looked to the dark arts too, Josh Griffiths and Max Sanders both wasted time in good chunks to take the sting out of the game at goal-kicks.
On the subject of Max Sanders, like most (if not all) of the stadium, I thought he was excellent and I’m hoping people can now see why I’ve been calling for him to get a run in the team for the past six months, he has really got it all, he’s a good tough tackler and an expert passer of the ball. Conor McGrandles as well might have put in one of his best performances this season, he is starting to become a leader for us, which is important with Liam Bridcutt’s never ending injury record. Joe Walsh on his return to injury was as crucial as ever, if we can keep him fit now for the rest of the season, it would be a massive boost for our survival chances but keeping him fit is easier said than done!
It might not have looked pretty but we got the three points and it meant an awful lot to the lads, and hopefully it is a good platform to build on going into Wycombe, but more importantly Doncaster in another Tuesday night six pointer.
The AllLincoln MOTM is Max Sanders