City Battle Hard to Point – Imps 1-1 Bolton

City battled hard on Friday night as City secured their final point of 2022 at Sincil Bank against a high-flying Bolton side. Nights under the lights at Sincil rarely fail to deliver, and Friday was no different with a hard-fought contest from a battling City that held on for a draw despite going down to ten men.

Mark Kennedy made four changes to the side that was embarrassing on boxing day. TJ Eyoma came into the back three alongside Joe Walsh and Paudie O’Connor. Lasse Sorensen came into the side after his forty-five-minute cameo against Burton. There was two changes in attack for the Imps too, Danny Mandroiu returned from injury and replaced Charles Vernam, while Captain Tom Hopper dropped out of the side for Ben House.

Bolton were always going to be a tough opposition, I watched them against Derby for their late Boxing Day fixture and they are a good side with a great core of players. Conor Bradley is an excellent prospect and is playing like a Championship player. A forward selection with the likes of Dion Charles, Dapo Afolayan and Jon Bodvarsson.

However, that being said we matched Bolton from minute one. They had control of the start of the game, but we limited them to football around the back, and overhit long balls. We looked dangerous on the break and we won ourselves a set piece within the first ten minutes. Mandroiu played the ball short to put House through on goal and the latter made no mistake inside the box and finished expertly past Manchester City loanee goalkeeper, James Trafford.

It was an excellent start by City and it was a great set piece straight from the training ground. Danny has played a really difficult ball and made it look easy to allow Ben to tuck it home. The stadium erupted and it is exactly what we needed after the embarrassment of the Boxing Day defeat. We have a habit of playing well when the odds are stacked up against us and it looked as if little old Lincoln might do it again.

We could have had two just minutes later as well. We utilised long throws from both sides of the field, with Sean Roughan and Regan Poole’s expertise being effective. Regan’s delivery in the first half caused the most problems, and after his throw was flicked on at the front post, Walsh looked odds on to score but he planted his header just wide of the far post much to the disappointment of the City fans.

Regan could have been sent off just before half-time, with a miss-timed challenge on the right-hand side. He was lucky to get away with just a booking, but that challenge would be the first of many poor-timed tackles from both sides.

We managed to get into half-time with the lead, and we were good value for it. Bolton hadn’t troubled Carl Rushworth at all, and we looked like the more dangerous side. We had good control of the game and we were managing it well. However, that was all about to change in the second half of this Friday night thriller. The second half was an absolute disgrace to watch. The officiating is the worst I have seen at Sincil Bank ever. It wasn’t just the fact that it cost us three points, for me both sets of players weren’t being protected on the pitch because the referee lost complete control of it all.

The first incident was the tussle on the floor that led to Joe Walsh’s booking. Now I can’t argue that Walsh shouldn’t have been booked but both players should have been booked, that is the way the game works. The normal way of dealing with an off the ball situation, where both players are in the wrong, you book both of them or none of them. This incident came right before their goal, which should have been disallowed for a foul on our man in the box. Afolayan, who is now Lincoln public enemy number one, ran across Lasse Sorensen and it looks like he put out an elbow, which struck Lasse in the face.

While the Bolton man is now being investigated, the point still stands that their goal should have been disallowed and we should have been one goal up against ten man Bolton at home in front of a bumper crowd. I can’t argue Walsh’s second yellow though, it is a red and it is probably what we deserved from getting away with Poole’s challenge in the first period. Joe has been stupid here, but he isn’t the sort of defender that does that often, so once he is back from his ban I expect him to be back in the side.

Jack Diamond got booked for us too, which was fair enough but Danny Butterfield got booked for us on the bench, which while he was outside of his technical area, I hardly saw a minute of the second half that didn’t involve Ian Evatt or a member of the Bolton coaching staff shouting outside their technical area. All we want is consistency, is that too much to ask?

I’m not going to argue that we were innocent, we played the dark arts well. We time-wasted at every opportunity, we threw the ball away and the later the half went on, we aggravated the Bolton players. Sean Roughan was excellent for us down the left-hand side and really fought for the badge all game long. As much as I was impressed with Sean, my man of the match was TJ Eyoma, he has been out the side recently, and he came back in and played with so much composure and maturity. With Walsh suspended, I think, if he keeps up his form against Ipswich, Mark may struggle to drop him.