City bounced back from two consecutive league defeats on Saturday, with a victory over Fleetwood Town in their first competitive game since Mark Kennedy was dismissed from his job.
Tom Shaw was appointed as interim head coach following Kennedy and Danny Butterfield leaving the club. The last few weeks have been frustrating – a lack of tactical direction in the final third left a lot to be desired, but in his pre-match press conference, Tom said he would be looking to change that. When team news came out, it certainly looked that way. Lukas Jensen, Paudie O’Connor, Adam Jackson, Alex Mitchell, Jack Burroughs and Lasse Sorensen all retained their places in the defensive third, while Ethan Hamilton and Ethan Erhahon started in midfield. Ali Smith came into the team, alongside Ted Bishop and Reeco Hackett. The biggest news was on the bench though, as Jack Vale was named in the matchday squad for the first time as a City player.
The tactical change that Tom spoke about pre-match was evident once we kicked off. The defensive shape looked the same, but Ali and Ted were playing as attacking midfielders behind Reeco rather than wingers, which then allowed the wing-backs get more space out wide. It was a simple tactical change, which suited the players we had available and that coupled with a more energetic performance, delivered a great watch in the first half.
We looked on the back foot in the opening few minutes, Junior Quitirna was causing us all sorts of problems and created a great chance for Jack Marriott. The former Peterborough man failed to take it though, and that’s when we started to wake up. Up the other end, we got just the boost we needed after the upheaval of the past week. Lasse took a long throw – with Hakeeb Adelakun only on the bench – and it caused issues. It could’ve been cleared by Fleetwood, but the ball fell to Reeco, who hooked it further into the danger area, where Mitchell was on hand to smash in his first goal for the Imps.
That setback certainly didn’t help Fleetwood. You imagine they’ll be lacking confidence after a poor start to the season – and that was massively evident as soon as they went a goal down yesterday. Throughout the first half, they tried to get back into it but the only substantial threat they posed was through Quitirna. Our performance on the road was commendable, in the first-half, we did everything you need to do to get a result away from home. We got ourselves a goal and then we showcased resilience while still appearing more likely to grab an opportunity on goal. The possession stats were much more encouraging than what we’ve seen in recent weeks, which was great to see as it was a massive focus in the build-up.
As the second half got underway, Fleetwood noticeably appeared more energetic. They improved, but we looked back to our usual selves defensively. It’s not something you feel when watching games, but looking back, we really didn’t look like conceding. The last few weeks has seen some criticism for low possession, and negative football but when you can play a defensive game correctly, you can pick up results – much like we did last season. In the last few games, we’ve seen defensive errors, players arguing on the pitch and a lack of tactical direction, that all disappeared yesterday. We battled hard, and got the result we have been needing for such a long time.
Ali deserves some credit for his performance yesterday. We haven’t seen the best of him yet, through no fault of his own. He’s not played the minutes he perhaps would’ve wanted – Hamilton signing the week before Bolton away crushed his chances of starting the league season in the starting team. He’s also been playing out of position far too often, yesterday he still didn’t play in his ‘preferred’ box-to-box role, but he had more freedom to come into the middle of the pitch, and he looked excellent.
It was all positives but in classic City style, we got ourselves a negative. Reeco had to be subbed off due to injury – it looked hamstring related – with Jovon Makama coming on to replace him. It was gutting to see Reeco come off – he joins an attacking injury/suspension list of Ben House, Tyler Walker and Danny Mandroiu. Vale was on the bench, but presumably wasn’t ready for over 40 minutes of football, so a massive chance for Jovon presented itself. I thought he took the chance well too.
Aristote Nsiala’s challenge on Jovon would see Fleetwood go down to 10 men late in the second half, and it was nice to see City’s young striker have a massive part to play in their man getting sent off. He wrestled the former Ipswich Town man to get through on goal and was pulled back. A few more minutes of stoppage time remained, but from that moment on, I felt very comfortable.
We could’ve flattered ourselves late on, Jovon had a couple of chances that he missed through no real fault of his own. Haks also had a chance after he came off the bench – he also looked a lot better than the last few games too. It doesn’t matter how much we won it by though, because we got over the line. It wasn’t a classic, but it felt like we’d got back on track after such a difficult week.
Hamilton and Erhahon looked back to their best, especially the former. He was MOTM in everyone’s eyes by a long way. The back three defended well, while Lasse and Jack covered an incredible amount of ground. Ted and Ali created some good chances in spells and also remained disciplined when we had to defend. The players that came off the bench did a job too, it was everything we expected of Lincoln City at the start of the season – especially away from home.
As I end this match review, I have to say I was really pleased for Tom Shaw. It’s clear he’s well respected around the squad and he really deserved that appreciation at full-time from the away fans. The game on Tuesday against Michael Appleton’s Charlton will be extremely interesting to watch unfold, and here’s hoping for a special night at Sincil Bank against our former gaffer!