City took a massive step closer to safety in League One after an impressive win in the capital. In usual City style, it wasn’t easy and was a nerve-racking game for both fans in the away end and at home.
Michael Appleton made six changes to the side that lost to Shrewsbury last weekend. Attacking duo, Liam Cullen, Anthony Scully and Morgan Whittaker were a few of those that came into the side. Liam Bridcutt also made his return to the side, after his long-term injury.
We changed system from the three at back to a more normal Michael Appleton 4-3-3. We started strongly with Liam Cullen, playing as the central striker, having a chance after a ball in from Jamie Robson, but his Cullen’s shot was easy to gather for the Charlton goalkeeper.
A number of intricate passing moves down the left caused Charlton problems, with Robson and Scully at the heart of that. Liam Bridcutt did really well in the opening period in my opinion, he controlled the midfield and made sure we kept our heads when we went under pressure and that experience from the captain soon paid off with Morgan Whittaker grabbing an excellent opener on the 33rd minute mark. I feel some of the Whittaker criticism is unjustified. He has been the scapegoat ever since we played Bolton and he jumped out of that challenge. I think we were expecting way too much of him, when he came in and his exceptional debut didn’t help that either. To see people questioning whether he should have shot earlier for his goal just shows my point of his criticism being unjustified. He scored a goal, and an important one at that, which is all that matters, he was also playing well until the incident (we will get to that later).
Charlton then got their sending off, I don’t think they could have any arguments. If you do something once and get carded, you shouldn’t do it again right under the referees nose. That and the goal knocked all of Charlton’s confidence out of them, but we failed to capitalize on that and Charlton managed to get to half-time only one goal down.
Charlton had a good chance early in the second period, with Jordan Wright making a superb stop to keep out Jayden Stockleys header. It looked like plain sailing, well that was until goalscorer Morgan Whittaker threw himself into a challenge with both feet off the ground, and was sent off by the referee. At the time, I did question it but after seeing it back, I don’t think anyone can argue against the decision. It’s one of them moments that really shows how inconsistent our season has been. There is no doubt Whittaker will learn from his first sending off, but he will come in for some criticism with most forgetting how important his goal ended up to be.
Just before the 70th minute mark, the change happened, which we all expected Liam Bridcutt left the pitch for Chris Maguire. I thought Bridcutt was excellent for us for the 70 minutes he was on the pitch. He is crucial and we are much better when he is on the pitch. We need to keep him next season, but getting in a similar figure on the pitch is important for when he is missing, but the work he does both on and off the pitch is crucial for the squad.
We managed to get our second of the game shortly after that substitution. Jamie Robson nicked the ball off a Charlton attacker and drove forward laying the ball off to Anthony Scully, who scored with his trademark finish cutting in with his right foot. Charlton did get a goal back, which made the last few moments difficult but we stood up to that challenge well and dug in when we needed to.
It’s games like this that make me question comments I’ve made last week and over the course of the season. I remember saying in my article that I’d considering letting Jackson go at the end of the season, but he was superb, the same goes with Bridcutt. MA has so many decisions to make once the season ends, and it will be interesting to see what he decides. We have some really good players, but we struggle to be consistent for some reason, I could try and go into it, but it’s a debate that could go on for hours.
I think that result keeps us in the division, but we aren’t safe until we are mathematically so we might have to wait a few games for that confirmation we all desperately want, with people pointing back to that season.
The AllLincoln MOTM is Regan Poole.