The Imps took a point away from home last night in a challenging game against Cheltenham Town.
Mark Kennedy made two changes to the side that beat Oxford United on Saturday. Sean Roughan dropped out of the side due to illness, meaning Harry Boyes came back into the starting XI next to an unchanged defence of Paudie O’Connor, Lewis Montsma, Regan Poole and Lasse Sorensen with the latter continuing his run of minutes at right wing-back. Ted Bishop and Ethan Erhahon continued in midfield but there was a single change in attack, with Danny Mandroiu being rested and replaced by Jack Diamond who lined up next to Ben House and Mide Shodipo.
The team news also saw some good news. Matty Virtue returned to the matchday squad for the first time since his hamstring injury around the new year period. A bit of an injury crisis has seen Mark name a smaller number of substitutes lately and the bench was the smallest it has been this year last night, with only four outfield players named. Luke Plange was available but with the loan rules, he had to sit out the game as is the case with Tashan Oakley-Boothe, although the latter hasn’t featured in the league since November and hasn’t been part of the matchday squad since MK Dons away in January but he does remain with the club.
Mark will obviously be unhappy about the whole loan situation at the moment, as we had two perfectly good players have to sit out of the squad because of the limit and I think that is why we keep hearing Mark talking about having more contracted players next season that we own. Realistically, if Roughan was available, it would probably have been Boyes that would have missed out last night with Plange on the bench but it’s not fair on either of them to miss out at all. We were in need of players in January and I understand we had to let players move on for their own career prospects but we let Jamie Robson and Tom Hopper go, who we owned and replaced them with two loan players. I think in the summer we’ll go out and get our own striker and left-back but we got left with few options in January to replace them and now we have a real problem with Virtue returning.
Carl, Matty, Shodipo and Jack have to be in the squad, no questions asked as they are crucial players for us so the final loan spot is left for one of Boyes, Plange or Tashan. Most would take Plange as he is a number nine option but we are lacking on defenders so is Boyes the route we take for the fifth loan player at the moment (once Roughan returns), it’s really difficult and I don’t think Mark is too happy about having to be in that situation. It looks like poor planning in a way, and next season we must not go over five loans, no matter how bleak our squad is looking. It causes more trouble than it is worth. Let me ask you, is having Boyes any different to having Robson? Not really because if he is fit, which is the majority of the time, Roughan gets in ahead of them. I like Harry, I think he is a quality attacking wing-back but we just didn’t need him with Robson at the club. Obviously, I don’t know the ins and outs, but from an outside perspective that is what I’m thinking and I don’t think I’m alone in that opinion.
Moving onto the game itself, there is one thing I’d like to get out of the way first. I don’t think we were poor last night at all. I like to think I’m honest when I write these match reviews and within reason, I speak the truth of what I’m thinking about the players and the games we play. We weren’t awful, we could have been better but it’s not as bad as both the MK Dons games or the Cambrdige game in January. Our build-up and approach play was quite good but we lacked the clinical edge to give us all three points.
I thought the first half was a challenging watch. Cheltenham looked short of confidence and offered next to nothing going forward. They pressed well and it’s clear they have useful front players, especially Alfie May, who is top quality for this level but it just wasn’t clicking for them. We had a few efforts too but bad decision-making was hurting us. Mide Shodipo had a few efforts, mostly from range and one from a few yards out after a corner. I’ve seen people getting on Mide’s back about his performance last night, but I thought that although he had a difficult evening, he was picking up the ball and having a dig from range, he’s at least trying to move us forward.
I’m not one for criticizing players constantly and using them as scapegoats, but I feel as if Jack Diamond needs to be touched upon after last night. I’m going to compare him to another player who played at the weekend for one of the best teams in the world, Bruno Fernandes. Manchester United went to Anfield and lost by seven goals if you’d been living under a rock and the performance of Fernandes came under the spotlight. He was getting extremely frustrated and it started to look as if he wasn’t trying. He got fouled multiple times and it went unawarded, but instead of getting on with it, he stood there with his hands in the air. I can move on from a player having a bad game, but I saw way too much of that from Diamond last night, if he didn’t get the decision from the referee, he complained, and he grew extremely frustrated. I’m no professional footballer or manager, but for me as a fan, the minimum I expect is a player to give his all. If he loses the ball or doesn’t get a decision, get on with it and try to win the ball back or get back in shape.
I feel sorry for Jack, he just hasn’t been able to apply himself recently and nothing is coming off. He is visibly frustrated and I will say the same thing I said the other week. Once he gets a goal, he’ll play better, but that goal looks far away at the moment for him. Too many times last night, he made the wrong choice taking someone on instead of laying it off and vice-versa. It isn’t just Jack, it’s the majority of our forward players but he just seems to be having a more difficult time of it lately. Another thing that isn’t going for Jack, is that he is on loan and fans seem to have an obsession with thinking loan players don’t care as much, which has been proved wrong many times but that being said, if Charles Vernam was given more game time from now until the end of the season over Jack, would I complain? Probably not is the answer.
I thought we were much better in the second half. We looked to be a little more aggressive and on the front foot. I think we had the better of the chances by a mile. Ben House had a really good chance that he should have scored or even knock across one more to Danny Mandroiu, who was waiting for an easy tap-in. House could have had another chance but lost his footing after a bad touch when he was through on goal. Ted Bishop also nearly scored the goal of the season but just a few inches saw the effort hit the bar rather than the back of the net. Football is all about fine margins, we have got the foundations, we just need a little more of a clinical edge in us.
We are in a really good place at the moment, that is now ten unbeaten and I’m not saying we can’t improve. We certainly can improve and I have a feeling that next season we will. This season was all about once again solidifying our place in the division but this time under Mark Kennedy and allowing him to start building the squad. He’s made us tight at the back and extremely tough to beat, If you’d told me five or six years ago that I’d have watched Lincoln City battle away with ten men to a well-earned point at Pride Park against Derby County or taken four points from Ipswich Town in League One, I’d have laughed in your face. Mark is doing a good job and I’m fully behind him.
I can understand the frustration, it’s not easy to watch at the minute, but we are getting the results and we are 11th in the division, so let’s have a bit of perspective and look at the season objectively before jumping to conclusions.