One Point Closer – Imps 0-0 Sunderland

The imps moved one point closer to safety as they drew with play-off hunting Sunderland. Michael Appleton made a few changes to the side that battled Rotherham on Tuesday night. Regan Poole returned to the side shaking off a knock. Conor McGrandles came back in after his suspension and Chris Maguire came back in.

Sunderland lined up with the majority of their big names for the division. The winger Tottenham bought for over 10 million pound, Jack Clarke started on the left hand-side. On the right, Patrick Roberts started, again a player Man City signed for a fee in a region of 12.5 million pound. Jermaine Defoe was also on the bench for the Black Cats.

It’s a real shame that we cannot beat the sides that are not in the top ten in the division. Our results against the likes of Sunderland and Plymouth are incredible in comparison to our performances against Doncaster and Gillingham. We can’t deal with having to break a side down, but if we have to dig in at the back and then counter attack, we are more than happy. Hopefully it’s something we can improve next season with new additions or a change of system.

I thought MA got the system wrong in terms of our attacking set-up. Sunderland didn’t give us a sniff going forward until we moved into the back four. MA said it post-match, that Brooke Norton-Cuffy was too deep, basically giving us two right-backs and a lack of numbers going forward. We have looked good with a five recently but we need to adapt potentially away from it during games.

Our chances were few and far between but Liam Cullen came the closest for the imps, with a remarkable save by Patterson keeping it out. We looked to have more of a grip on the game offensively with the back four rather than the five. It will certainly be interesting to see what MA does next weekend.

Last of all I want to apologize for how late this article as. I’ve been busy of late and as much as I would have liked to write more, there simply wasn’t time. However I’m sure the article next week will be much longer and out quick. Thank you for the continued support.

The AllLincoln MOTM is Jordan Wright