Improvements Needed and Fast – Imps 2-2 Accrington (1-3)

City got knocked out tonight by a poor Accrington Stanley side on penalties in the Quarter Finals of the Papa John’s Trophy.

Mark Kennedy made a few changes to the side that was disappointing against Charlton Athletic on Saturday. Charles Vernam came into the side, as did Adam Jackson, who returned from suspension. Ted Bishop also returned to the starting eleven, for the first time since the first round of the FA Cup. There were once again places on the bench for Jay Benn and Jovon Makama, while Elicha Ahui returned to the matchday squad aiming to make his second appearance in the competition.

I’ll set the picture for you. A football club is two ninety minute games away from the clubs third Wembley appearance. The club in question is in a relatively poor patch of form and a win that could potentially see them at Wembley a game later would be massive in improving morale around the whole club. From an outside point of view you’d expect them players to come out fighting and try to turn it around. Well, we know that club in question is Lincoln City and we didn’t get that reaction that we were all expecting. I know it is only the EFL Trophy, but not only was it a chance to be ninety minutes from Wembley but also a chance to earn good money for the football club.

I have made my opinions very clear in the past about the competition. I have said in the past, and I’ll quote an article on this from last season, “The EFL Trophy shows everything that is wrong with the football pyramid, while I think it is a good money earner and an opportunity for Wembley, the use of Under-21 teams has ruined it to a point where I don’t attend many games in the competition at all”. That does sound harsh on the competition, and before someone says it, I am fully aware that I would crawl out of the woodwork and go to Wembley if we got there. I have gone on a ramble to prove something here, I am really not found of this competition and even after watching it tonight, I am just as annoyed with the performance as the next fan.

We may have drawn 2-2 out there tonight, but we were really lucky to even be able to take it to penalty kicks. Firstly, I have no idea what we were playing at with the formation. Charles Vernam is not a wing-back, no where near one. The only winger we have had this season that has ever played wing-back in their career is Jordon Garrick and he is at Forest Green now. The point I’m trying to make is why hasn’t Mark made a change to the system today after it is obvious it didn’t work on Saturday and we don’t have the available personnel to fit it.

I am a really big fan of Mark Kennedy, but today he got it wrong. Saturday was partly on him but the defeat tonight is on him even more. You can’t expect a player that has always been an attacker play a defensive position and be up against it for the majority of the game. We should have played a four, and played one of our right-backs in left-back as a solution. Mark has to take responsibility with his team selection as he was at fault tonight.

Our first goal was extremely fortuitous. We should have been trailing with Accrington missing an open goal but Tom Hopper went upfield and put the Stanley goalkeeper under pressure. The keeper played the ball straight against the Imps Captain with the ball deflecting off him straight into the net. In classic Lincoln City style of recent though, we failed to take advantage of the luck on our side and John Coleman’s side equalised through Aaron Pressley, who was seen sprinting in behind the Imps’ defence before remaining composed to slide it across Rushworth and into the bottom left corner.

We were dominated for pretty much the rest of the game and when Accrington got their penalty and scored it. It was fully deserved, we were awful and it showed. Tom Hopper did equalise for us though to try and help steal something from a game that we didn’t deserve anything from, Mandroiu found Sanders with a reverse pass, and his deflected strike looped up towards the back post, where Hopper headed home to send the game to penalties.

I’m not going to sit here and analyse a whole penalty shootout because that is the only bit I don’t really care about as it is simply just luck at the end of the day. Accrington deserved to win it and I wish them all the luck in the next round. We need to put this result behind us and go again because we have no time to dwell on it. Get players in and go again at MK Dons, the season isn’t going to stop just because we are in bad form.

We get up and go again. Stick together and hope for a result at MK, see you there.