MATCHWATCH : Lincoln City (a)

[Brogue]

But we should be ‘fine with this’

[Sutekh]

Always take a few days before my BFTG post to mull over it. I wasn’t wowed, I wasn’t gutted - I saw some positive shoots and saw negative ones.

The biggest concern is always when you see opposition fans question your teams set-up, and let’s face it - we played straight into their hands with a high line - they could defend in a block and let us have the ball, and it worked a treat with only really two long distance Wing shots causing problems. So for me, blame lands on the manager and coaching staff there & as rightly pointed out in here, without a pacey cb it’s suicide football with such a high line anyway.

From a personnel perspective, I thought Abrefa looked good, Wing didn’t get the ball enough to dictate play, Savage ran around a lot, Lane looked a handful when he came on and the lad up top worked hard but was at fault for the second goal as he couldn’t hold up play. Our best player, and who I’m convinced will be our POTS was Elliott. Can turn on a sixpence, drives forward, he will be key to our season.

Learnings -
- need to set up better to cater for opposition and our own strengths
- need a few more options up top, so cliche but to get promotion you need goals and we have one recognised striker in the squad, need to acquire at least two more for competition and versatility

Would pretty much echo this.
Also, rather damning comments from the Lincoln Manager
https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/spor ... ay-defeat/

The Royals conceded a goal in each half to continue their wretched run against the Imps, still winless since 1985.

Apart from the 2-1 win at the Madejski in November 1998 of course.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Always take a few days before my BFTG post to mull over it. I wasn’t wowed, I wasn’t gutted - I saw some positive shoots and saw negative ones.

The biggest concern is always when you see opposition fans question your teams set-up, and let’s face it - we played straight into their hands with a high line - they could defend in a block and let us have the ball, and it worked a treat with only really two long distance Wing shots causing problems. So for me, blame lands on the manager and coaching staff there & as rightly pointed out in here, without a pacey cb it’s suicide football with such a high line anyway.

From a personnel perspective, I thought Abrefa looked good, Wing didn’t get the ball enough to dictate play, Savage ran around a lot, Lane looked a handful when he came on and the lad up top worked hard but was at fault for the second goal as he couldn’t hold up play. Our best player, and who I’m convinced will be our POTS was Elliott. Can turn on a sixpence, drives forward, he will be key to our season.

Learnings -
- need to set up better to cater for opposition and our own strengths
- need a few more options up top, so cliche but to get promotion you need goals and we have one recognised striker in the squad, need to acquire at least two more for competition and versatility

Would pretty much echo this.
Also, rather damning comments from the Lincoln Manager
https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/spor ... ay-defeat/

The Royals conceded a goal in each half to continue their wretched run against the Imps, still winless since 1985.

Apart from the 2-1 win at the Madejski in November 1998 of course.

Earnshaw regularly gets stats wrong and being called out for it on Twitter. Not a very good journo...wasn't even at the game on Saturday

[Snowflake Royal]

Damning? He said we lost confidence after the second went in and maybe gave up a bit because we couldn’t break them down.

I'd say it was really a combination of the goal and some subs that disrupted our flow.

[Stranded]

Literally very little to take from the first game of the season - at a venue we historically do poorly at on a day of the season we tend to also do poorly at.

There were some decent signs and some concerns (as you would expect on day 1) and it is very likely that the settled team will end up being 4 or 5 players different to that after the international break (assuming we have one).

[Sutekh]

Literally very little to take from the first game of the season - at a venue we historically do poorly at on a day of the season we tend to also do poorly at.

There were some decent signs and some concerns (as you would expect on day 1) and it is very likely that the settled team will end up being 4 or 5 players different to that after the international break (assuming we have one).

The issues were more to do with the management’s decisions and approach than the players, Noel is still learning so let’s hope he is very flexible and doesn’t get entrenched in a specific dogma that he refuses to deviate from.