City Continue Unbeaten Home Run with Draw – Imps 0-0 Wycombe

City continued their unbeaten home run yesterday afternoon with a bore draw with Wycombe Wanderers.

Mark Kennedy made one change from our disappointing defeat last weekend away at Shrewsbury Town. Adam Jackson came into the back three, replacing TJ Eyoma alongside Paudie O’Connor and Joe Walsh. There was some welcome news on the bench too, with Danny Mandriou and Jordon Garrick returning to the side giving us much-needed attacking options.

Despite that, the most interesting bit of team news was the lack of a goalkeeper on the bench. With Jordan Wright appearing in the warm-up, many were confused by the decision until it was explained after the game by Mark. If you missed that post-match interview on the radio, Mark explained that he will be available to train again on Monday and that he took a calculated risk that meant a young goalkeeper wouldn’t have the pressure of sitting on the bench.

With a quarter-final of the World Cup looming and the temperatures struggling to reach above freezing, the attendance was slightly down and the usual pre-match excitement wasn’t there. It felt unusual to have a City game on live, and England playing a massive game straight after. Many had their eyes on the Portugal and Morroco game to see who England may play in the semi-final (that hurts to write now) and much of the talk around me was about that.

There was a special moment pre-match that saw the fans, players and staff pay respect to the late Johnny Johnson. Some things are bigger than football and that was a really touching moment, that makes me proud to support this football club.

Gareth Ainsworth returned to Sincil Bank, which is always a special moment for the fans. Even for people too young to remember him, it feels like you have watched him because of how much you get told about him and how much he meant to the club and the club meant to him. His Wycombe side plays dimensional football, with the ball spending more time up in the air than it does on the floor, and you learn to expect that from a Gareth Ainsworth Wycombe side.

Last season teams like Wycombe would find it very easy to roll us over because we were weak physically and struggled to stand up to the opposition. However, as we have learnt over the last few months, this season is different we stand up to the opposition and we can go toe to toe with physical teams.

Jackson, O’Connor, Poole and the usual candidates stood, as usual, yesterday, which is something we’ve learnt to expect, but every player did that yesterday. Even down to the attacking players, who were doing their best at both ends of the pitch to help us hurt Wycombe while nullifying their threats.

The game didn’t serve up many thrills at all, the chances for both teams came few and far between in the first half with our main threat being Charles Vernam and the occasional set-piece opportunity. Wycombe struggled to create anything with our back-three containing Brandon Hanlan with ease and their creative players struggling to get things going.

The second half was a bit more exciting with Wycombe having a good chance to go ahead, hitting the post from a few yards out after a scramble in the box. O’Connor put in the final challenge to clear and once again hurt himself in the process of helping the team not concede. Luckily he was able to carry on and I’ll say it time and time again, I really like Paudie, he is putting his heart and soul into it every time he steps out onto the pitch and I was wrong about him when he first joined because now he is really starting to show his quality.

The same fixture last season ended with a draw, and we all left the stadium delighted that we were able to withstand the pressure and come away with a draw, and this season we are frustrated with it and I think that shows how far we have come in just a few months.

We are getting better with each game and it will be a long process until we are at the place Mark wants us to be. It may take us three or four transfer windows, but with the progress, we are making I am more than happy.

Here’s to Mark Kennedy and his Red and White army.