The Imps drew against Forest Green Rovers yesterday in the scorching heat to keep their unbeaten run going, making it three draws from three games this season in League One action.
It was a day of frustration for Mark Kennedy and City as we rued missed chances that meant we could only gain one point rather than all three. Mark made four changes to the side that beat Doncaster in the cup mid-week. Tom Hopper, Regan Poole, Jamie Robson and Lasse Sorensen all came back into the side, while Ted Bishop kept his place after an impressive outing on Tuesday. We started with Oakley-Booth in midfield alongside Sanders, with Sorensen in holding role. This all meant that Ted would be playing out of position in the front three. There was two new faces on the bench, Charles Vernam and Jordon Garrick meaning Hakeeb Adelakun had to sit out. After the first few games, one of the biggest speaking points was the lack of options on the City bench, especially in attacking areas, but it looks like we have sorted that and the introduction of one of them bench players changed the game for us.
People are saying we were underwhelming, but I think if you look back at the highlights, we could have easily won that game 2-1 or 3-1. On a different day Hopper might have put that one-on-one chance away and Jordon might have squared the ball across to Anthony on the far side. We struggled to create chances early in the game, and I thought that was down to having no real wide players on the pitch. We know what Scully is about, but he likes to tuck in, shoot on his right foot or create chances from the inside and Ted Bishop is not a wide player, so he was naturally going to come inside. That left us with a really scrappy game that was all being played in the midfield. The one thing we did do is nullify the opposition by matching their back-three, which meant Hopper was not isolated but once he won the flick-ons there were no runners to get onto them, leaving us a real issue.
We had an early change, which was forced. Tashan Oakley-Booth had to depart due to an illness that was hampering him. According to Mark in his post match interview, he or anyone else was not made aware of it and he didn’t sound particularly pleased about that either. This meant Jordon Garrick came on for his City debut, most probably much earlier than expected and he soon made a big impact on the game. Within ten minutes of entering the field of play he had created two massive chances of his own. The first one went wide and on reflection he should have played the ball to Scully, but we’ll cut the slack, especially considering he has only been in two days of training. The second chance was a good one and Jordon did all he could but the goalkeeper made an impressive save.
We should have really been in the lead at half-time with the chances we created in the final ten minutes, but instead it remained at the 0-0 deadlock. Half-time came at the perfect time for Forest Green as they looked to be really struggling as we got into our stride. If you are one of those people that is wondering where the goals are coming from, take a look at the highlights from yesterday, although we didn’t score we created multiple good chances and if Garrick had been on the pitch since the start he most probably would have put at least one of them away.
I’ve seen people get on Hoppers back this morning, mostly due to Charley Kendall. While I do really rate Kendall as a player, it is a long season, he is still very much a young player and he will get his opportunity, either with us or out on loan. You have to feel to Ted as well yesterday, he was incredible against Doncaster and he deserved his start in the league but again he was played out of his preferred position yet again. When he moved into midfield, we looked much more balanced and we created so much more. I like the glimpses I’ve seen from Tashan but Ted is in better form, so hopefully he’ll be playing on Tuesday.
We started the second-half on the front foot and we looked to impose ourselves on the game. This was evident with the Tom Hopper chance. Sorensen had a loose touch, but he put in a crunching sliding challenge to win it back and the fall fell to Hopper but his effort went wide of the post. We did finally get the breakthrough though. Jamie Robson, Ted Bishop and Anthony Scully linked up well on the left-hand side and the latter put in a ball towards Tom Hopper, whose eventual flick on was turned in by a Forest Green defender after pressure from debutant Jordon Garrick.
The goal is where it all went wrong for City and we lost our way. Forest Green started to come back into it and we started to defend our own box. I’m aware that everyone will have their own periods in the game and we all knew Forest Green were going to get a chance or two but after our goal, we should have tried to go and shut down the game. However, Forest Green made a big substitution and brought Conor Wickham onto the pitch. If he didn’t have the injury and fitness problems and he was consistent, lets be honest he would not be playing for newly-promoted Forest Green and the quality we all know he has was quickly shown when he scored his goal.
The attack came from Jamie Robson shooting from 35 yards out, thinking the keeper was still off his line because of the fans shouting shoot. Mark Kennedy was not happy at all with him and their goal came just about a minute later. We can’t blame Robson, but there is some people that will of course. He was back in position and was unable to stop the ball in and Wickham held off Eyoma well and struck the ball brilliantly into the top corner. From then on, there looked like there was only one team that would win it and they weren’t wearing red and white.
The game ended with a draw and although some see it as underwhelming, we probably would have lost that game last season late in the game. This season we seem much more resolute and the manager still wants more attacking recruits, so we will be fine once we play Cambridge away. We now move onto two tough away days and we all need to support the players during the next week.
The AllLincoln MOTM is Jordon Garrick.