Following Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw away at Carlisle United in the Second Round of the EFL Trophy, which The Imps lost 4-3 on penalties, I asked the Vital Lincoln City members what three things they learned from the match.
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Here’s what sedgleyimp said:
1. We are very obviously lacking in the final third. Tonight we actually played some very decent stuff up to the last ball in the final third. This was a game that we should have put to bed well before penalties were required. I thought that the midfield threesome of McGrandles, Sanders, and Fiorini worked well tonight and controlled that part of the pitch, something which has been lacking in recent games. Yes, we were playing a pretty poor League 2 side so we should have controlled the game. But all that good work is undone if that final ball and shooting is poor. That is the reason we went out of the competition tonight, a competition we are actually better out of this season so that we can fully concentrate on ensuring we start next season in League 1.
2. Chris Maguire needs to be taken off dead-ball situations. There are two points to this. We had so many corners tonight. Maguire didn’t take them all, but I don’t recall one which looked to cause their defenders or goalkeepers any problems. So many of the deliveries failed to get past the first defender. What wasn’t helped was the fact that I noted on a few of the corners we seemed to have only 4 players in the penalty box. Carlisle had pulled back all their players. We need to work on corners far more, and one of the things we need is somebody in the box who can pounce on a second ball. That player in our squad is Chris Maguire. He is wasted taking the corners, and often wastes them. Let Fiorini take the corners as he does for Scotland, with some success, and let Maguire cause a nuisance on the six-yard line.
3. We have some fickle supporters. The who will win this game thread is full of ‘we are crap and will lose tonight’ followed by the same supporters stating that tonight’s result is an embarrassment because we lost. We really are a bunch of curmudgeons on the whole who have been here before and will be here again on Saturday making the same moans and groans. You sign up to a football club for life and you take the highs with the lows. Get behind the team. Get behind these players.
Carlisle United 1-1 Lincoln City (4-3):
Three Things We Learned:https://t.co/0PpYn1pLP0#CUFC #ImpsAsOne
— Vital Lincoln City (@VitalLincoln) December 3, 2021
