Derby Dispatched – Imps 2-0 Derby

Last night was something very special. Mark Kennedy claimed his first win at home with the Imps dispatching Derby County under the floodlights.

I went into the game last night with a feeling of worry, we were playing a big club at home after we had performed ever so poorly against Cambridge just over a week before. Derby, however were not Cambridge, with all due respect to our previous opponents, Derby have a big fan base, a massive stadium for the level and multiple Championship level players. All you had to do is look at their team selection. Conor Hourihane started in midfield for them, he has scored at all four levels of English football and has thirty one Premier League appearances, with his most recent one coming just two years ago with Villa. Curtis Davies, James Collins, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing have all been there and done it. The quality is incredible and that is without mentioning their depth on the bench. Tom Barkhuizen has 220 EFL Championship appearances and David McGoldrick was scoring against Chelsea just a few years ago for Sheffield United.

I only got more worried looking out our own team news to see Tom Hopper missing. He may not be everyone’s favourite player but what he does add is leadership and the ability to take the pressure off the team by winning free-kicks and for me that is something I thought we’d miss with Ben House in the number nine position. Joe Walsh was exempt from the matchday squad, that has now been confirmed as a small knock from training, and after a poor defensive display at Cambridge I was hoping Walsh would come into the side to add a balance with his left foot.

That worry didn’t go away from me for the first ten minutes. Derby took control of the game in a Manchester City/Pep Guardiola style. They kept the ball around their backline and played some neat combinations in the midfield and out-wide. One positive I did see though, once again, was our controlled press and their was a moment when House pressed their goalkeeper leading to the ball going off the striker before going out of play, that really increased the atmosphere and tempo of the game from our point of view. We started to believe they were vulnerable and we got our foot on the ball.

We started to utilize our skilful players and one of them changed the game for us. Jack Diamond picked up the ball, caused real problems in the box and got pulled down by a Derby defender. Penalty Lincoln. It was Diamond who stepped with the spot kick and it was a powerful and well executed strike into the bottom left beating the goalkeeper, who guessed the right way. A knee slide proceeded and one of them under the lights normally comes in a memorable game of a managerial reign (Jake Hesketh, I’m thinking of you). Looking back now, that Ipswich victory seemed like the real start of Appleton’s era and last night (without getting ahead of ourselves) felt like it was the start of something special for Mark Kennedy and this team.

Derby did end up getting the ball in the back of the net, but it was an easy call for the linesman and one that I reckon even the Derby goalkeeper knew was offside. There was no complaints from the opposition players and we went in with a goal lead at the break. I thought the teams looked pretty even, Derby lacked a clinical edge and we took our chance and grew into the half more as it went on. Our press was causing them problems, and as I’ve mentioned earlier our confidence kept growing as we saw them panic on the ball.

Derby came out for the second half after about just ten minutes of half-time, showing their intent to come back and win the game. We emerged a few minutes later with no changes to the side and the start of the half was controlled much like the first by Derby. They, once again, had the ball in the back of the net but it was disallowed after the linesman’s flag went up. Similarly to the one in the first half, there was a lack of protests from the Derby players and we got things back underway.

We looked under pressure and as well as we played it felt like it was just a matter of time until we crumbled, but the man of the hour, Ben House, popped up with his first City goal of the season. It was created by Diamond with the tricky winger once again causing problems from the left. I haven’t heard our crowd celebrate a goal like that since pre-lockdown, it felt really special and significant. It was a composed finish by House, and I can’t say I’m surprised at all, he has showed a high level of maturity since arriving and he does not look like a player in his first full season at football league level. I think last night proved he is more than just a song by Cornell.

I thought Matty Virtue was brilliant for us (as was everyone). Virtue hitting the ground running is great news for Mark Kennedy, I’m not sure how long Max Sanders is out for but Virtue added what we were missing without Sanders last weekend. He didn’t stop running and he certainly didn’t shirk a tackle. Sean Roughan was another player I’ll pick out as he dealt with Mendez-Laing expertly. It was like watching a left-back with over 200 appearances at Championship level under his belt, but he hasn’t got that. Two years ago we all knew he was talented and he is starting to rekindle and better that form.

Adam Jackson came on for the final few minutes, he will be a big boost to the side. The switch to a five back system has been used a few times already this season and I’m a fan of it. If we have a player like Jackson to bring to help us see out a game, we are in luck. He may just end up becoming our ‘when he comes on, the games over’ type player. I want to give the whole defence credit, they dealt with some real good attacking players well and they deserve credit. TJ Eyoma was excellent, he looked poor in the first half against Cambridge and he bounced back from that last night. Despite his exceptional performance on the pitch, his lifting of the 617 and the rest of the stand was my personal favourite part of his game.

We face Bristol Rovers on Saturday, and Joey Barton has already started usual pre-match ‘analysis‘ of us. Another win on the weekend would be excellent but as Mark Kennedy has said multiple times, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The AllLincoln MOTM: I’ve checked the records and I believe it is his first ever time winning one, congratulations to Sean Roughan.