Courageous City Bounce Back – Imps 3-1 Sheffield Wednesday

It feels as if I have been writing the same old stuff week in week out recently. So starting this article has been a nice change, with loads of positives to talk about and analyse. I was in Lincoln early yesterday, it was the first time I’ve arrived so early for a matchday in a while and I was met by the expected police presence, which gave me hope we’d been in for a good game with plenty of atmosphere, even if we struggled on the pitch. There seemed to be a large amount of nerves going into the game, especially after the last few home games.

The team news was largely confusing, I’ve supported MA through his whole time at the club, and even I couldn’t imagine him switching to a 3 or 5 at the back (however you look at it). TJ Eyoma, Morgan Whittaker and Lewis Fiorini came into the side, which was met with some anger on social media, but with our recent form, no matter who Michael picked, someone would’ve been unhappy. We had no recognized left-back in the side due to injury, which was kept quiet. A few people spotted Bramall before the game arriving late along with Melbourne, who seems to never be involved anymore so some feared the worse. As for the rest of the team, Hopper and Marquis both kept their places as did Joe Walsh, who looks to be getting fitter every week.

We started strongly, with players fighting and playing for the badge. Lewis Fiorini won an early corner after hitting a shot on the edge of the area. Another training ground routine was used on the corner with Chris Maguire, finding Morgan Whittaker who flicked it back post for John Marquis to do what he does best and find the back of the net from what must have been less than 5 yards out.

Wednesday started to gain control and start to get some controlled possession. Barry Bannan was the centre of their play as usual but I though throughout the 90 minutes, McGrandles dealt with him really well. Despite our resilient defensive work, we got caught out on the counter attack, with an impressive run from Marvin Johnson, who put in a ball for Saido Berahino to volley home.

We went into half-time level, which was probably a fair scoreline at the time. The atmosphere was electric inside the stadium, which Appleton thinks helped the players perform. I was nervous coming out for the second half as we always look prone to concede in that period from half-time to around the 60th minute. We defended well during that period and also got up the pitch well ourselves. Our good work soon paid off, Regan Poole played Tom Hopper in behind, the latter laid it back to Brooke Norton-Cuffy, who smashed it home to give City the lead.

City continued to make chances, and Tom Hopper could’ve had one of his own when he was played through on goal but his chipped effort was saved and cleared off the line. We did get our third goal though in the 76th minute, the ball was thrown to McGrandles, who laid it off to John Marquis, and the latter did the rest and tucked it into the bottom left corner.

We held out well, but we were forced into giving Jordan Wright his debut, with Josh Griffiths heading off with an ankle injury. That was really the only negative from yesterday afternoon, we had everything we lacked last week and we outclassed a very good side.

The formation change worked very well, TJ Eyoma probably had his best game since his return in the summer which I think is going under the radar, he looked really strong in the tackle and dealt well with the Owls’ aerial threat. Regan Poole and Joe Walsh looked excellent on either side of the back three. Brooke Norton-Cuffy carried on his form, and grabbed his first professional goal.

Morgan Whittaker deserves heaps of praise for his performance. He has let himself down with his defensive workrates in the last couple of weeks, but he worked tirelessly for 90 minutes. It obviously won’t be his long term position, but he has shown he is capable of it now, so it gives us another option in games. Lewis Fiorini, for me, had his best game in a City shirt, he always looked to go forward and got stuck in to tackles when he needed to.

The performance yesterday was everything we’ve been asking for the last few weeks, so to see that passion and desire from every player on the pitch is such a big positive going into the next few tough away trips.

The AllLincoln MOTM is Lewis Fiorini.