The Sorensen Show – Imps 2-0 Cheltenham

The Imps returned to winning ways at Sincil Bank today with Lasse Sorensen stealing the show.

Mark Kennedy made three changes to the side that went toe to toe with Premier League side West Ham United on Wednesday night. Lukas Jensen retained his place in net, while Adam Jackson came into the side to play alongside Paudie O’Connor and Sean Roughan. Sorensen started on the right, while Jaden Brown came into the side for Jack Burroughs. Ethan Hamilton and Ethan Erhahon continued in midfield, while there was a place in the side for Ted Bishop alongside Hakeeb Adelakun and Reeco Hackett.

Cheltenham came into the game on an awful run – no goals in 9 league games and a singular own goal in the EFL Trophy – so the expectation was on us to win the game. It’s not always that easy though, Cheltenham will score a goal this season, and they even made life difficult for Portsmouth a few weeks back when they picked up their only point of the season. You only have to look at their performance against Stevenage, they probably should have had a goal in that game too, so it wasn’t going to be the walkover that many predicted.

We had to start the game well if we were going to come away with a good result and we did exactly that. Within the opening five minutes, we had an opener. Lasse was the scorer, but there was so much more to the goal that calmed the nerves around Sincil Bank. Roughan played a really well controlled ball into the channel to Bishop – the midfielder took the ball down with an excellent touch and found Lasse on the opposite side of the 18 yard box. The Dane took one touch before striking his effort low into the bottom left corner. I have to say the goal was really well worked and it exploited the gaps on either side of the pitch. The ball from Roughan is too easily ignored by many, but it’s something the centre-half has added to his game recently and it can be a real asset to us if it’s used correctly.

It didn’t take us long to get our second either, with Lasse scoring once again. The move started with Hamilton in the middle, with the Scotsman finding Reeco. The former Portsmouth winger drove forward before playing Lasse in on the overlap. The Dane took a touch before firing his effort home to make it 2-0 to the Imps. It was a deserved second for Lasse too, watching it back you can how much ground he makes up – it’s truly incredible. In truth, Lasse’s transformation to one of the best wing-backs in the division isn’t talked about enough. We have a really good core of players but for me, he could just be our most crucial player.

Job done. We won’t get another team come to the Bank this season and be as poor as Cheltenham were. They had one chance of note that I remember on target, and then one in the last few minutes that was blasted over the bar. They are in trouble, there’s no doubt about that and the performance they put in yesterday with their new manager in the stands didn’t have one stand out positive. I’d be surprised if they aren’t near enough down by February.

I felt for the 118 Cheltenham fans that travelled yesterday. When a club is in a situation like that, it’s normally the same fans that go week in, week out and they don’t deserve to watch that lack of effort every week. I have no problem with Cheltenham, so for the sake of the fans I hope Darrell Clarke can help turn it around.

It was a rare start and a big occasion for Brown at left wing-back. Jack Burroughs has come in and done such a good job, so he’s been dropped to the bench for the past few weeks but yesterday he looked sharp and impressive in attack especially. I can see why we picked him over Burroughs against this opposition, we needed to exploit the flanks and Brown is the more attacking option that we have in our Arsenal. We had a few half chances as the half ended, Reeco shot forward after the second goal but his long range effort flashed wide of the post. Brown and Bishop linked up well before Adelakun’s effort deflected into the goalkeepers gloves.

Referee, Rob Atkinson had been a passenger in the first 30 minutes with the game slowly becoming less of a contest but then the official decided that he needed to get involved. Cheltenham were struggling with Bishop all afternoon, and they soon resulted into pulling him down. I have no problem with the approach they were using, it happens at all levels but an official has to take control of the situation, and Atkinson did the opposite. Bishop clearly waves an imaginary yellow card at the referee, which is a bookable offence but he doesn’t do that if he wasn’t getting pulled down every few minutes and the fouls were going unpunished.

Being a referee is a tough job and I like to think I’m not too harsh on officials, but yesterday wasn’t right. The game had 7 yellow cards in total. Jackson, Bishop, Hamilton and Erhahon got booked for us as did Kennedy on the touchline. There were also cards for a Cheltenham player and substitute. I don’t remember one bad foul in the game, it didn’t warrant 7 yellow cards. The game was finished as a contest after 20 minutes, so there was no need for Atkinson to referee the game like he did. It’s not all on Atkinson as I honestly believe that the whole system needs to a revamp from top to bottom but I’ll save that discussion for another day.

The second half wasn’t a great watch, but we had the game won so there wasn’t any complaints from a City point of view. Apart from a missed header from Jackson, and an offside goal for Adelakun, there wasn’t any other chances for either side. The offside goal was very tight, but with a lack of angles and replays, I won’t argue that it was the wrong decision. On first look, I thought he might have been onside but as soon as I saw the replay I had my doubts.

I was really impressed with the second half, not from a performance point of view but how we managed the game. It was clear we were tired from our efforts on Wednesday, some more than others. In the second half, it looked as if we had an eye on Tuesday and that’s a good thing. Leyton Orient will be a tough test and we need to be at our best in that game.

Adelakun and Hackett looked finished and were taken off, and we also managed Bishop’s minutes by pulling him off. The only talking point from the second half – apart from the referee – was the return of Danny Mandroiu. He’s been a massive miss for us recently, so to have him back on the pitch is a big positive going into a really busy few months up until the new year with limited attacking numbers.

I’m not going to analyse every inch of the second half, because it doesn’t really matter. We came away with three points and that’s all we care about. We now have a tough week on the road to contend with but it’s one I think we can come through with a decent points haul.

Referee: Ben Atkinson
Assistants: Darren Williams and Anthony Da Costa
Fourth Official: Stephen Wade