City got off the mark in the league yesterday in style with a big win over Wycombe Wanderers on our return to the Sincil Bank.
The back five remained unchanged from our midweek win at Meadow Lane in the Carabao Cup. Lukas Jensen made his third consecutive start in net. Sean Roughan, Paudie O’Connor and TJ Eyoma started as our back-three, with Adam Jackson still out injured. Jaden Brown and Lasse Sorensen remained as our wing-backs, despite the signing of Jack Burroughs on Thursday. Ethan Hamilton came back into midfield for Ali Smith, after he was benched on Tuesday, alongside Ethan Erhahon. Danny Mandroiu and Reeco Hackett retained their places out wide, while Ben House replaced Tyler Walker as our main striker.
Tuesday night was good, but there wasn’t much to learn from it. We performed as expected against a side in the division below that had rotated their side slightly with important league fixtures on the horizon. That game wasn’t an indication of what was to come for us or them, but it was nice to get through to next round with some good football on show. The real test though, came in the league on Saturday. Our first league fixture didn’t go to plan, although there were positives to take from the defeat, and our second league fixture looked to be a difficult one too.
Wycombe are a good side; they are currently in a period of transition it seems. Against Exeter on opening day, they tried to play some football and keep the ball on the deck, which is something Wycombe aren’t known for doing, so that will take some work to get right. Yesterday they looked to go a bit more direct with the wind, but they certainly didn’t look like Ainsworth’s Wycombe side of recent. They’ll come good eventually; there’s just too much quality in their side for that not to happen.
The point I’m trying to make is Wycombe was always going to a tough test for us. They are used to being a top ten League One side, and more often than not in and around the playoff places. When I initially looked at the fixtures, our start worried me. We could have played well against Bolton and Wycombe but come away with no points, with a cup exit to a Notts County side full of confidence in between, and all the positiveness would have been lost amongst many, but we’ve done the opposite to that. We lost to Bolton, but we did well on Tuesday and we backed that up yesterday with an exceptional performance.
It was good to be back at Sincil Bank too, it feels quite a while since we’ve had a competitive fixture at home. Firstly, I have to say the work going on around the ground over the summer has been incredible. There was lots to notice if it was your first time back since we beat Shrewsbury on the final day of last season. The new ‘WeAreImps’ mural on the GBM Stand is a really nice addition to the ground, and the removal of the temporary stand improves the look of the stadium as a collective too. The stadium is certainly cleaner too, as well as an increased amount of food and drinks options available, and most importantly we are allowed bottle lids, so now no one loses their drink when we score! In all seriousness though, it’s clear plenty of work has been going on in the build up to our return and it’s nice to see our club in good hands.
I’ll finally get onto the match action itself, and despite our dominant display. The first twenty minutes or so weren’t the easiest ride for City. With the wind against us in the opening half, Wycombe looked to go direct and hurt us that way. They nearly did hurt us early on, a long throw caused a mistake from City. Miscommunication saw two defenders go for the ball, meaning Wycombe were three on one. The Wycombe attacker slid the ball across the 18 yard box to Jack Grimmer, but remarkably his strike was saved by the foot of Jensen in the City net to keep the scores level.
That is the sort of moment that changes a game. We saw it last week at Bolton; an early goal motivated them and was a key factor in them going on to get all three points. People won’t like this way of looking at things, but if we hadn’t conceded early at Bolton, the game would’ve been much different, and if Wycombe had tucked away that early chance yesterday then I think they would’ve gone on to get at least a point.
The first chance of note for City came from House. Mandroiu slipped him through on goal, but the striker just didn’t have enough pace to fully get away from the defender, who brought him down. Many were calling for a penalty, and although I’ve seen them given before, I think it was the right decision from the inconsistent Adam Herczeg.
Once the rain stopped, and more importantly the wind had calmed down, I think we grew into the game and we ended the half the better side by a long way. We looked really sharp, especially Brown, who was causing constant problems down the left hand side with Mandroiu. The two centre-halves either side of Paudie were also catching my eye, I think it’s obvious that Sean’s best position is on the left side of a three, we all expected him to do well there and I’ll elaborate on him later on in the article but TJ really impressed me, he looks a completely different player to the one that finished last season, and it isn’t talked about as much as it needs to be.
Something quickly became evident once the second half got underway, without the wind causing us problems, Wycombe didn’t look like a side that could cause problems in this division. That did leave me wondering why Harry Boyes had been left out considering his attacking threat, combined with Vokes up front. I was personally relieved not to see Harry in their starting lineup, so I’ve got not no complaints at all.
We picked up where we left off in the first half, but we just seemed to add some emergency to our football. We were pushing for the opener and Wycombe were struggling to deal with us but it just felt like we need something different to help us get that breakthrough, Mark must have felt the same and he made a triple change with 30 minutes to go, something we haven’t been able to do for quite a long time. The top teams in the division have the depth to do that, and yesterday was the first time in at least a few years I felt we had that real quality to come on and change the game. Tyler Walker, Ted Bishop and Jack Burroughs all came on in place of Ben House, Ethan Hamilton and Jaden Brown as we searched for an opening goal.
Just a few minutes after the changes we got our opening goal. Ted looked to be direct on the right hand side and put a ball into the area, although it was cleared, it fell to Danny on the left, who looked to get in the box again. Danny’s left foot delivery was perfect and went straight to Reeco, who tapped it home for his first goal in City colours.
In a matter of minutes, we extended our grip on the game to 2-0. Sean’s precise long pass into the flanks located Danny with room to manoeuvre. The skilful Irishman controlled the ball smartly and provided an accurate cross, which was tapped in by Ted at the near post. It’s worth noting that if Ted had not finished it, Tyler would have had his first goal of the season, so it’s good to see the attacking intent from City
We were in a different league to Wycombe once the two goals went in. Walker, who really impressed me in his cameo, flicked the ball onto Ted but his shot was easily saved by Max Stryjek in the Wycombe goal, but we were pushing for that third goal, despite having that comfortable lead.
We did get a third, and it just was the icing on the cake for many. Once again, a long but controlled pass forward from the Imps’ defence, this one by Paudie, was flicked on by Walker to Ted. While Walker drew a defender in a certain direction, Ted found Danny, with a really well hit ball. With Wycombe concentrating on the threat of Walker, Danny confidently struck the ball from a distance, finding the back of the net.
I have to talk about Walker’s contribution to the goal, and the win as a whole. You could tell for the third goal, he desperately wanted the ball to get his first goal since returning to the club, but Ted chose the harder option. Despite not getting his goal yesterday, his role in our attacking play was vital in his 30 minutes on the pitch. It’s also worth noting he also had a goal disallowed for offside, a separate opportunity created by Mandroiu, but the signs are looking good for Walker.
The game died out, with just the 9 minutes of added time, and it was certainly a job well done for the Imps. I think Mark’s post match is worth a listen if you haven’t heard it, he talks about remaining grounded and we certainly need to do that. It was a good win, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We have Northampton on Tuesday, that will be a tough test, and one I hope we will pass!