Lincoln City took on Peterborough United yesterday away from home. The game ended in a heavy defeat for City as we got outclassed by a top Peterborough side.
City head coach, Mark Kennedy made one change to the side that beat Oxford United on Tuesday night, with Teddy Bishop coming into the side for the injured Ben House. Jordan Wright kept his place in goal with Carl Rushworth still out with an injury. New signing Jordon Garrick made his second start for the Imps, with Anthony Scully on the other flank. It was all as expected with the same team being very impressive against Oxford mid-week.
Some news came out before the game, of Anthony Scully attracting interest from Championship and top League One clubs. This is news we were probably all expecting to come at some point, however the timing was completely wrong, especially considering the player is starting. People have seen that news and seen the way we have played and decided to get on his back. I’ve had the pleasure to speak to Scully a few times since he has joined and he loves the club and the fans, and there is no way that he would not put in the effort because of interest from another club. The story going out was bizarre, it wasn’t breaking news as there was no bid, it was just interest from other clubs. Clubs are always scouting players and until we see confirmation of a departure, we should support not just Scully, but any other player in a similar situation.
I’d also like to take a chance to speak about the comments made to the referee on social media and in the stands. I personally didn’t see anything in the stands but I heard it happened. Yesterday we lost to a better side, one that has two of the best strikers in the league and a Championship budget. The gender of the official wasn’t the reason we lost. Like I said we lost to a very good side and to try and pin the blame on something else is not correct.
I actually thought we started the game quite well, and we looked dangerous with Garrick on the right hand side. We also rode our luck too, with them hitting the bar very early on. There seemed to be problems early on, the midfield didn’t look to be winning the battle and both of our full-backs were getting caught out. Peterborough got their first goal, I can’t lie the first goal really did annoy me. I like our pressing but we lost the ball on the edge of the Peterborough box and Eyoma was trying to win the ball back and left us exposed at the back. We got outplayed but I thought that goal was a naive one to give away. I’m not blaming Eyoma but I think we should have adapted our pressing game to make sure we didn’t get caught out.
I’ll be mentioning the word naive quite a few times in this article, and I’m not trying to be negative. However, we have a young manager, together with a young squad so we will be naive at times with how we play and how we set up. We are still a work in progress and a loss makes us learn more than a win does. After their first, we struggled massively to get our foot on the ball and try and get back into the rhythm of the game. The second and third goals went in and our heads dropped, I won’t pick the all the goals apart as we can all look at the highlights and see it clearly. We got punished for small errors that would normally go unnoticed and that shows the quality Peterborough have.
We got to half-time and we were at a serious risk of losing by five or six or maybe even seven. Mark Kennedy saw that and brought on Sean Roughan and we moved to a back five. Mark said it in his post-match interview, we will not go and score four goals to bring it level, but what we did do is manage to get our foot on the ball and not concede for forty minutes of the second half, which will hopefully help our confidence and morale going into the next two important games.
We conceded early in the second period after a mix up at the back but after that I thought we managed it well. Peterborough took their foot off the gas and we managed the game and stopped it becoming a real embarrassment. No one had an incredible game but that wasn’t for lack of effort, but as I’ve said we got punished and this was a real wake-up call for us and we might end up being better off after losing the game.
The majority of the fans yesterday were brilliant, the atmosphere was incredible from minute one and even when we were 4-0 down we were still going, which is amazing. The players and the manager needs us in these tough occasions as much as they do in the good moments.
The AllLincoln MOTM is Tom Hopper.