Playoff Hopes Falter – Imps 0-0 Stevenage

City picked up a battling point on Saturday against 6th place Stevenage. 

Michael Skubala was forced into a few changes with injuries once again hitting the Imps. Lukas Jensen started in goal, behind a back three of Alex Mitchell, Paudie O’Connor and Sean Roughan. Lasse Sorensen and Reeco Hackett continued as wing-backs, while Ted Bishop and Ethan Erhahon once again started in midfield. Jack Moylan earned his first league start as part of the midfield three, while Ben House and Joe Taylor looked to provide the goals in attack.

Another game brought another big injury blow and it was once again in midfield. Conor McGrandles missed out, with the severity of the injury unknown. It’s a big loss with Ethan Hamilton out for the season too. On top of that, Danny Mandroiu, who you’d expect to start in the middle if we are lacking numbers, missed out too. That all meant that Moylan was handed his first start after his move from Shelbourne in the summer.

Saturday was a massive game, and it was very pivotal for our play-off hopes. If we won, then it would be possible but if we didn’t it felt like a step too far. We didn’t get all three points yesterday, so we are still eight points behind. It’s possible, but I feel like it’s a step too far for us now. An eight point deficit in ten games isn’t easy, especially when your relying on a team like Stevenage to drop points. 

Stevenage are what they are because of Steve Evans. It’s no secret that our fanbase don’t like Evans or the way his teams play and yesterday was a perfect example of why. They ruined a game of football with their tactics. Off-the-ball blocks, time wasting, tactical fouls, getting under certain players’ skin and fouling Ted at every opportunity were just a few things you expect to see from a side managed by Evans, and we got every single one.

The game was low on quality. Obviously that isn’t just down to Stevenage but they felt like a big factor in it. The ball was mostly in midfield, and there were plenty of aerial battles, which I felt we dealt with well. We didn’t offer much in terms of getting the ball on the floor and playing but you could see we were trying to do that. Moylan and Bishop in particular were attempting to get us forward, as was Hackett on the left but Stevenage worked hard to nullify them, especially Ted.

Ted has been a massive part of our form over the past few weeks and in my opinion he’s one of the best players in the squad. When he performs, we perform and a manager like Evans has one tactical plan to stop someone like Ted – take them out enough times until they fall out of the game. They tried but to be fair to Ted, he battled really well and kept trying to get on the ball, with some success. No McGrandles in the middle did change his role slightly as he had to get more involved in the defensive side of the game and it’s worth saying that it’s now more pivotal than ever that he can play 90 minutes because of the Hamilton and McGrandles injuries. 

The game didn’t have too many chances. There was a nice move that saw Reeco fire wide in the first twenty minutes and another that Taylor fired over the bar inside the box. There were a few nearly moments in the second half, mostly from set pieces that looked dangerous. Ted almost got through on goal but some brilliant defending didn’t allow him to either get a shot away or put the ball back across the box. That was that really for City chances, and I actually don’t remember Jensen making a save, apart from one in the first half when there was a small mix up at the back that allowed Jamie Reid get a shot away. It was a game of limited chances, and 0-0 was probably a fair result on reflection.

A big positive was our defence. We stood up to Stevenage really well yesterday, without our most physical defender. I was paticulary impressed with O’Connor – he’s performing at the top of his game at the moment. He was very dominant in the air throughout the game, and it’s that sort of performance that earns us a point. Roughan also continued his strong run of form on the left side of the back three. He’s been a revelation recently, and it’s encouraging to see him improving game by game.

It’s worth mentioning Jack Moylan too. I thought he was excellent throughout, especially his defensive discipline when we didn’t have the ball. This wasn’t an easy game for him to come into and he performed really well. It would’ve been very easy for him to go missing in a game like this, because of the physicality element and the time the ball spends in the air, which contrasts his style of play. He’s going to take time to adapt but if McGrandles isn’t available for a while, I hope he gets plenty of minutes in midfield because he’s clearly got talent and we know he’s got goals in him. As performances go in games like Saturday’s, Moylan can go away very happy with how he did.

It’s disappointing we didn’t get the result we needed for a realistic playoff charge but there’s plenty of positives to take from the game. The difference between our performance against Stevenage in Skubala’s first game in charge and Saturday shows how far we’ve come in such a short time and we’re nowhere near the finished article. Like Skubala has said on multiple occasions it’s an evolution not a revolution, and there’s no reason why we can’t end this season on a high before giving it a real good go next season.

Playoffs aren’t out of the question, but it will take a lot from here, but it’s football anything can happen. One game at a time.