“A perfect blend of battle and great football.”

Views from Joseph Lovett following Saturday’s 2-0 win at home against Sunderland in Sky Bet League One: “What a magnificent performance, a perfect blend of battle and great football. Have you ever seen a match where wingers run the fullbacks ragged and put in crunching tackles? Even Bruno was getting involved in tackling!

The midfield was the difference today. O’Connor is what we’ve been missing. He is much more positive going from defence to attack and he gives Morrell the freedom to be more inventive going forward. That said, Morrell was phenomenal in breaking up play and got my man of the match, by the finest of margins. In reality, it could have gone to most of the players today. Payne was finding pockets of space between the defence and midfield and played some beautiful balls forward. Bruno gave us the perhaps the best 15-20 minute stint I’ve ever seen from a winger, the fullback couldn’t cope and eventually had to be taken off. The ball he played in for Walker for the second was a thing of beauty. I doubt there was a better ball played into the box over any league this weekend. Fortunately, we have a player of Walker’s quality to pounce on it… It’s a match made in heaven.

Pleasingly, the defence was solid against what is clearly a good forward unit. I even said at halftime that I didn’t think we could keep a clean sheet as Sunderland looked threatening for the final 10 minutes of the first half. After we rode out the first 5 minutes of the second half, they never looked like scoring. Not only did we defend exceptionally well, we made them play to our strengths by forcing them to opt for long balls. Both Bolger and Shackell were dominant, especially in the air. Eardley did exceptionally well and got another assist to add to his tally. Vickers, who I’ve criticised previously, did very well. He pulled off a wonder save, but more importantly, looked much more comfortable in his box and was releasing the ball for us to counter much quicker. The latter meant we were much potent going forward. We weren’t laboured and predictable as we have been for the last few weeks.

In short, it was a magnificent team performance. Matched by the fans, who really deserved the win. How many fans will help galvanise a team when the team misses a penalty? It’s brilliant to be part of. I expected nothing, we deserved everything.”

Did you go to the match on Saturday afternoon? Don’t forget to Rate The Players, Vote For Your Man of The Match, Rate The Ref and share your views on our Match Thread!

More views from the Match Thread:

JT_LCFC: “Fantastic today and just what we needed after our first sticky spell.

Just felt the first 15 set the tone, we were on the front and pressing firm whilst Sunderland were trying to hit Wyke down the middle.

I thought it transpired today we just had too much pace for them today and the Sunderland left-back must have been counting his lucky stars when he saw his number on the substitute board. Bruno absolutely ripped him a new one.

Fantastic.”

Sincilbanks: “Thought it was a terrific performance today. Once we had got 15 minutes in and not conceded we grew in confidence when we realised they weren’t actually that much cop.

Finally going 1 up in a game meant they had to come at us and we showed how adept we are at picking off sides who over commit.

We also demonstrated we weren’t going to be bullied by another big physical side and I can’t help but think the return of O’Connor must have helped that.

3 extremely valuable points and we’re off and running again, time to put another unbeaten run together…”

berksimps: “Only arrived with 15 minutes of the first half remaining. Out of choice, I don’t do stress, so accepted the position and when within range had Radio Lincolnshire on. Was pleased to hear Grant was starting, otherwise much as expected; you could sense the atmosphere. We needed to score first, and as I dropped Archibald (the black lab) off, we did! Scenes, and more scenes in Heighington.

What an unbelievable game, or for me last hour, we dominated them to the extent it really was off the scale. In the space of a week, MA has got them passing forward, none of this repeated interplay across the back, and running into spaces. The belief had returned, especially good to see Vickers come and claim everything, he will have gained so much from the game. It was a wonderful team performance, the midfield dynamos did overtime, Walker is the poaching goal scorer we have always wanted, and Andrade was out playing Premiership football but on our right-wing!

MA has made a new start and on Saturday the players bought into it. The fans gave everything and we all got three points. Three more than most thought likely, and in the process, we destroyed a “bigger” club and its travelling fans. How sweet was that?”

Thank you to Graham Burrell and Lincoln City Football Club for the photograph!

"A perfect blend of battle and great football.":https://t.co/M9MlwzCvVS#ImpsAsOne #ProudToBeImps #SAFC

— Vital Lincoln City (@VitalLincoln) October 7, 2019

https://www.facebook.com/VitalLincolnCity/posts/2447301498639414

Lincoln City				Sunderland
Walker 18', 59'
Vickers				J. McLaughlin
Eardley				C. McLaughlin
Bolger				Willis
Shackell				Lynch
Toffolo				De Bock			65'
O'Connor			76'	McGeouch
Morrell				Power
Andrade			82'	Maguire			54'
Payne				O'Nien
Grant				Gooch			53'
Walker				Wyke
Substitutes
Chapman				McNulty			54'
Connolly			76'	Flanagan
Smith				Burge
Melbourne				Dobson
Anderson				McGeady			53'
Hesketh			82'	Grigg			65'
Akinde				Leadbitter

Game Statistics
12	Goal attempts	13
4	On Target	3
2	Corners	7
13	Fouls	15
3	Yellow Cards	5
0	Red Cards	0
47	%	53