Lincoln City beat Oxford United yesterday at home to extend our unbeaten run to nine games and put us into the top half of the table.
Mark Kennedy made four changes to the side that struggled and drew with MK Dons on Tuesday night. Carl Rushworth kept his place in between the sticks but there were a few changes in the defensive line that sat in front of him. Lewis Montsma returned from his suspension to replace the injured TJ Eyoma in central defence. Lasse Sorensen started after impressing on Tuesday night, in place of Harry Boyes meaning Sean Roughan went back to left wing-back with Regan Poole moving to the left side of the back-three. The midfield of Ted Bishop and Ethan Erhahon remained unchanged but Mark made two changes in attack, handing Mide Shodipo a start over Jack Diamond and dropping Luke Plange for the returning Ben House.
On Tuesday, we were poor but I made a point in my match review the next morning that if we had held out and won that game, then the reaction would have been much different and I think yesterday’s game proved me right. I don’t think we played particularly well, and not much better than Tuesday but we held onto the lead and got over the line so everyone is pleased. Some fans may be more critical of the performance, but the vast majority would have left the ground happy, I was one of them fans.
Having watched the game back today, I can see we didn’t deserve the three points based off our performance but at the end of the day, we got ourselves an important three points and climbed to eleventh in the league. I could have written an article that had just the one line saying ‘three points are three points’ as that is simply what yesterday was all about and while that article would have taken up less of my time, you read this site to get my perspective of the game, so I have written a tad more than that!
I thought we looked quite good first half, but we weren’t on top. It was pretty even but Oxford probably had the bigger share of the chances, that being said I thought we took the only quality chance of the half and that was Mandroiu’s penalty. I don’t think there was any complaints about it at all, it seemed pretty stonewall. It wasn’t a horror tackle or anything but in short, it was a penalty. Danny stepped up and tucked it away impressively, considering he missed his last penalty and isn’t our usual taker with Diamond on the bench. I really want Danny to do well, and I hope he can get himself a run of games to get some momentum.
Oxford United are not a bad side by any stretch of the imagination. I actually struggle to see why they are where they are. From what I’ve seen it’s mainly putting chances away and I think that was evident yesterday. I think they had two or three chances that either were defended really well or they failed to convert. I don’t know the full extent of their problems, but I can guarantee they aren’t going to go down, they are too good. I see them as a bit like us last season, they are in a bad place but they should have enough to keep their place in the league.
We weren’t really threatened in the first half and we went into the half-time break one goal to the good. However, despite leading, there did seem to be a cloud of negativity over the ground and it was understandable. I’m a very positive and optimistic person when it comes to Lincoln City and even I was thinking we may go on and not take advantage of the one-goal lead. We did it on Tuesday, and I just hoped we didn’t do it again, just so I could write a positive article!
As you all know, in the second half we did manage to hold on, maybe it was a bit undeserved but I’ll go back to my previous point, we got three points. I feel now is a time to mention Rushworth, what a performance from this man yesterday. That save he made in the second half, I’d go as far as saying that is the best save I have ever seen live. He didn’t put a foot wrong all afternoon, he claimed every ball and made a few great saves. He is so dominant in the air that Oxford players were trying to nail him at one point after he claimed a corner and was looking to distribute quickly. We’ve had some very good keepers lately, but with all respect to the others, Rushworth is miles ahead and he will be a Premier League goalkeeper.
Another positive from yesterday that I’ll touch on quickly is that we won with nine of our own players starting. A lot has been made of us having seven loan players and Mark has addressed that and said he wants more players to be his own and yesterday was a step towards that. Rushworth and Shodipo were the only loan players that started, which I think is a really good place to be in heading into next season.
I have to apologise for this being out slightly later, the Formula 1 season started today, which means my other work was a bit mental, to say the least, so I’ve only just had the time to sit down, re-watch the game and write this now. If you have a spare few minutes and like watching race cars then I’d appreciate it if you could have a read of my stuff. If not, thanks for reading this piece and up the imps.