Bitter Barton Dispatched – Imps 1-0 Bristol Rovers

City beat Bristol Rovers yesterday at Sincil Bank in a cagey affair that saw a goal from Regan Poole, a red card and Joey Barton’s usual antics.

Mark Kennedy named an unchanged side to the one that beat Accrington Stanley by three goals to nil last time out. Carl Rushworth started in between the sticks behind a back three of Lewis Montsma, Adam Jackson and Paudie O’Connor. We stuck with the wing-backs, with Sean Roughan and Regan Poole, who is now seemingly our club captain. Ethan Erhahon made his home debut alongside Ted Bishop. Jack Diamond and Mide Shodipo kept their places in attack and were looking to support this season’s top goalscorer Ben House.

I came into the game with an air of positivity about it. I think a few things were making me feel so positive, the win against Accrington was massive for us and there was so many talking points from that game but the biggest was the impact that Erhahon made in the midfield, it filled me with hope and optimism. That positivity I mentioned was also fuelled by me attending the live Stacey West podcast on Thursday hosted by Gary and Ben, Mark and Danny Butterfield in particular spoke so well. I have always been behind Mark and the team, but hearing from him for an extended period of time that wasn’t a press interview filled me with optimism. Even speaking to him after the podcast finished, he is so refreshing and he has our best interests at heart as a football club. Mark and Danny want the team to win and do well, it’s obvious and after the podcast on Thursday, which can I say was a brilliant success and is a great achievement, it was even more obvious to me. If there was one man I wanted to succeed at Lincoln City, it would be Mark Kennedy.

Talking of succeeding, that is certainly what we were doing yesterday. Barton sets up teams to come at you quickly and try and nick an early goal, but the way we countered that tactically was excellent. We were the ones that came out fighting and looking to put them under pressure early. We had a chance early on through O’Connor, the defender challenged for a header and nearly caught out Ellery Balcombe in the Rovers net. The Gas keeper couldn’t keep us out for long though, with the Imps taking the lead in the fourteenth minute. A nicely worked set piece from City saw Diamond put a ball into the area, which found the head of Poole, who made it one-nil to City!

We looked top quality. Much like last weekend, everything we’ve seen this season was coming together. We pressed the ball really well and we were bullying the opposition into making mistakes. I don’t mean bullying in the same way that our friend Barton would define it, but we were first to everything and we were on them as soon as they had the ball. Erhahon was the best at that. Not a single Rovers midfielder had time to think on the ball, he was on them straight away and the majority of the time, he regained possession for the Imps.

We could have added a second goal shortly after the first too. We were playing great football and we nearly got our rewards for that but Balcombe saved two quick-fire efforts from Bishop and Poole. Bristol Rovers hardly had a sniff and their first real venture into our half gave us a man advantage. A ball was played over the top of our back three, which was looking like it was easily dealt with by Rushworth, but Ryan Loft decided to contest for a ball that he was never going to get to. He lifted his arm towards our man and he paid the price for it. It is the intention for me that makes it a red card, he is not going for the ball at all and decides to lift his arm to Rushworth, you can’t argue with that. I think the best part of the whole thing, except Barton getting rather wound up, was our players reacting to the elbow on Rushworth. Especially O’Connor, his reaction to it was really refreshing. Puadie was brilliant all game, I can’t remember a header or a duel that he didn’t win, he rarely put a foot wrong and on top of all of that, he was backing his teammate and was at the centre of the protests.

Erhahon has been the one getting all the praise in the last two games, and while he has been brilliant, I want to concentrate on Montsma. I have been looking forward to seeing him return, but there has always been a thought in the back of my mind that we won’t see the same Lewis that we had previously, but after the last two games, I think we have potentially even got a better player than we had before. He’s playing in a back three for the first time, and I think it is a system that really suits him. He has the license to drive forward and play them ‘Montsma Long Balls’ with a bit more security behind him. With O’Connor and Jackson behind him, he has the perfect environment to affect the game and thrive.

The red card did ruin the game I thought, especially the second half. We failed to add to our advantage and fair play to Barton, his team went for it and didn’t sit back to try to not embarrass themselves. We could have added some more goals, Diamond and Shodipo looked really dangerous on both flanks and they had the Rovers full-backs really struggling. I think this was Shodipo’s best game so far, he’s starting to link up with Roughan really well and as for Diamond, he looked back to the player we saw play against Bristol Rovers last time. He looked direct and dangerous for the whole time he was on the pitch.

Luke Plange also really impressed me in his cameo. Even his first action in the game was a run into the channel that created a chance, he looks direct and a proper number nine. He had a few chances to score too, he looked a little bit selfish when he was running at the defenders, which I think is a good trait in a striker sometimes. If we can keep handing him minutes and get up to speed, he can be a massive asset for us from now until the end of the season.

I suppose I’ll have to touch on Barton’s actions towards Ethan at the end during the press interview, and it was one of those moments when you aren’t sure of what actually happened because it’s just so unheard of. Ethan is a 21-year-old player, while Barton is a 40-year-old manager. Threatening to flatten out a player after the game has finished is just disgusting, and while I’m not Barton’s biggest fan, I’d have never expected that. He can go on Twitter all he likes to try and say our red wasn’t a red or whatever, but they were lucky to end the game with ten and I’d like to think as someone who has been in the game for a long time, he’d have a little more respect, but then again there is a reason he is known as a thug.

Moving back to the football, I feel some of Barton’s fairground actions have distracted us from the fact we got three points, had our fourth consecutive clean sheet, and even saw a rare Regan goal. Derby on Tuesday now becomes a free hit, but we know what we can do against the big sides against the odds.