Not Good Enough – Charlton 2-1 Imps

City were not good enough as they lost 2-1 to Charlton Athletic away from home in the first away game of 2023.

Mark Kennedy made a few changes to the side and was majorly limited by injuries and suspensions. Ben House and Sean Roughan both picked up injuries in training, leaving us really short. Matty Virtue has been confirmed to be out for a sustained period, while Adam Jackson was suspended. All of that meant that Harry Boyes made his City debut and Max Sanders, Tom Hopper and Joe Walsh all came into the City starting team. The bench made for grim reading with Charley Kendall, Jovon Makama and Jay Benn all making rare appearances on the bench.

We were so poor yesterday and as much as I think we deserved a point from our chances we created in the last twenty minutes, we deserved absolutely nothing. I think Mark got it wrong during the game, we looked decent for twenty minutes but once they started to overrun our midfield, I think we need to tweak something while the game was going on. Nothing ground-breaking but just moving Danny Mandroiu behind a front two of Hopper and Jack Diamond perhaps until half-time. Mark is a good manager but the lack of in game management in the first half was an issue and if we had sorted the issue of our midfield being overrun, we might have gone into the break only one goal down or even level with Charlton.

The two goals we conceded in isolation we really poor too from a defensive point and that blame cannot be laid at Mark’s door. Questions have to be asked of Lasse Sorensen here, Scott Fraser gets past him too easily in midfield and then after he releases it, Lasse doesn’t follow his run into the box, where he is wide open to head home, and to finish it, it comes off Lasse’s head. I don’t like blaming players individually but he has a massive part to play in this goal and that can’t be ignored.

We failed to gain any control after that setback, we continued to be second-best in the game and we paid the harsh price for that and found ourselves two goals down. The second goal was one that was unacceptable to concede. I’ll start with Carl Rushworth, what an earth is he doing. I have always spoke about how much I rate him, but why is he moving out of the way of the ball. He looked like a school child in goal, that is scared of the ball. It is completely unacceptable at any level. His job is to stop the ball going in the back of the net and he hasn’t done that at all. It isn’t all on Rushworth though, Lasse gets easily bypassed again, while TJ and Regan get split open by one pass. If people still here and put all the blame on Mark, they need to look at the players. Two mistakes saw us go into half-time two goals down and with the game wrapped up for Charlton as we struggle to score goals anyway and with 2022/23 Tom Hopper up front that is even more of a struggle.

We did improve in the second half and that was mostly down to Mark’s substitution. Jack Diamond hasn’t been at it recently and hopefully getting pulled at half-time is a reality check for him going into some crucial games in the rest of January. Ted Bishop came on and helped us gain some control, and apart from his one mistake that nearly saw Charlton get a third, he was our best player on the pitch. We still didn’t make any mark on the game until the 60th minute however, and another change from Mark saw us start to get back in the game. Charles Vernam came on, which saw Danny drop into the number ten position and Ted alongside Lasse in the midfield and from that moment on, we looked so much better.

For the last thirty minutes of the game we were excellent, especially Danny who looked like a different player in the middle. If the game had gone on for another ten minutes, we would have come away with a point, but at the end of the day we weren’t good enough for sixty/sixty-five minutes, so realistically we deserved nothing. We did get a goal and it all came from Charles on the left. Tom won the flick-on, and Charles found a nice pass to Danny. It took him three attempts but the ball was in the back of the net and we found ourselves back in the game.

We had a really good chance near the end to make it level. Some nice play from young Jovon Makama, who came on late-on, saw Danny have a chance on the edge of the area and his first time effort was just agonizingly wide of the post. It was devastating end, but it was what we deserved for poor defending, poor in-game management and a poor team selection.

There is a lot of responsibility at Mark’s door for this defeat, of course there is, but some fans calling for him out is absolutely absurd. Mark has said multiple times, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will this Lincoln City team. This is a long-term project and we will lose games along the way. Mark is a young manager, that is learning on the job and he has admitted that multiple times in interviews, so he needs our support. My opinion is that he is the right man to take this club forward and I’ve never even questioned that, but if you think differently then I respect that, but I simply cannot agree.

We have an important rest of the month coming up, and we need the fans to be supporting Mark and the lads in the next three league games as they are crucial. We may have lost, but we will be back.