Lincoln City extended their unbeaten run to 15 games on Easter Monday, with yet another three points against strugglers Carlisle United, away from home.
Michael Skubala made one initial change to the side that beat Leyton Orient on Easter Friday. Lukas Jensen started in goal, behind a back three of Alex Mitchell, Paudie O’Connor and Sean Roughan. Lasse Sorensen and Reeco Hackett started as the wing-backs. Ethan Erhahon returned in midfield after missing Friday with suspension, alongside Ted Bishop and Jack Moylan. Ben House and Joe Taylor started as a duo up front.
We were forced into another change ahead of kick-off. Jordan Wright came in for Jensen due to an injury in the warmup. Another injury for Skubala to contend with at such a crucial point in the season. Jordan came in and performed really well though, which is credit to him and his ability. If Lukas is out for a while, then we’re in good hands.
We took the lead early on thanks to House’s second goal of the season. It was some lovely play in the middle that found Lasse out on the right. A dangerous ball in from the Dane connected to the head of Taylor before the Luton loanee pushed the ball back across the box for a simple tap-in for House.
Our second goal of the afternoon came well against the run of play. Carlisle started the second half the better of the sides but it was a clinical counter attack that killed the hosts off. House picked up the ball before releasing a great pass to Taylor just over the half way line. City’s number nine shifted the ball onto his stronger right foot and fired home into the bottom corner.
Carlisle didn’t give up though – it was a spirited performance by the division’s worst statistical side. They grabbed themselves a goal back in the 80th minute, but it made us better and we saw out the game really well. Jovon Makama was the hero on Friday scoring a winner but his impact was just as big on Monday, holding up the ball and managing the game along with fellow City academy graduate Freddie Draper.
The game was secured in added time with a fabulous strike from Bishop though. After breaking forward, the former Ipswich Town man was fouled on the edge of the area. He stepped up to take the set-piece and scored City’s first direct free-kick in over a year to seal all three points on the road.
The result sees us stay in the playoffs, still on level points with Oxford, ahead of our trip to Oxford.
Once again due to a busy Easter, I’ve not been able to put together a full match report, so instead you can read the thoughts of Michael Skubala below:
Michael Skubala: “I’m really pleased!”
Head coach Michael Skubala was pleased with the way his side battled and fought as City made it maximum points over Easter.
He commented on Lukas Jensen’s injury and praised deputy keeper Jordan Wright for his excellent performance despite coming in at short notice.
“He’s done something to his back and we’re not sure what it is, so he’ll have to get a scan. He felt it in the warm-up and really was struggling.
“Jordan Wright has come in and made a couple of terrific saves. As I told the group in the changing room, we’ll need everybody at certain moments. If we’re going to do it, we need people to step up. That’s why we train hard every day and try to do the best we can on the changing pitch.
“Jordan has been fantastic. Every day he trains like a brilliant pro, he knows he’s sitting and waiting and he had to win us the game in a certain way.”
On the game as a whole, Skubala was pleased with the performance, especially the fight shown by his players.
“I’m really pleased. We had to dig in again, scrap and fight. We knew coming here that Carlisle would be playing for their lives, and any team doing that will make it tough.
“I thought we started the game brilliantly and went a goal up as a result, but then we took our foot off the gas a little bit and allowed them to make it a little bit clunky. They left four on the top line, going long, and it became a little bit of a battle up there.
“However, in the second half, they started so brightly and we needed Jordan and the lads to dig in at that moment. Even though we were lively on the counter-attack, we just couldn’t settle.
“We knew at times it would be scrappy and messy, and we’ve just had to get through that with our mentality, which we did and I’m really pleased.”