Views from Pete (PWould) following yesterday’s 2-1 defeat away at Birmingham City in the Third Round of the FA Cup: “It was a game low on inspiration but high on perspiration for the Imps. Not so for Birmingham, who at times looked as if they could not be bothered to even be on the pitch. Strange really as it was mainly a second string and you might have thought they wanted to stake a claim. Let’s also keep second string in perspective. Peacock Farrell was signed as the first choice keeper. On to the Blues defence. Gardener Hickman has played 17 games this season, Klarer the Austrian cost 4 million from the Bundesliga, Cochrane had played 20 games.
Only Sampsted is not a regular and he’s played 20 times for Iceland. In midfield they had wonder kid Yokoyama who gave Tendayi kittens all game. Leonard who can’t get into Brums first team but in my mind was the second best holding midfield player in our Division last season (Northampton) behind only our own Erhahon. Harris, played 16 games this season and Wright who they signed from Rangers. Upfront were Dykes and Jutkiewicz. Lovely Lyndon needs no introduction. 9 goals in 42 games for Scotland. At least I didn’t get full sight of his infamous tattoos as it was so bloody cold. The poor boy was well covered up. I was on the train to New Street yesterday and got chatting to a couple of lovely Blues fans. They told me that Lyndon or cart horse as I like to call him has not scored yet this season. I knew then of course that he would get on the score sheet. Not a bad goal by the way for a cart horse. Jutkiewicz is the club captain and gone for transfer fees in the 5 million range.
They could then afford to bring on the likes of Paik and Willumson.
QUIZ: Have a go at the quiz below (click the graphic)!
When you go to a big ground the last thing you want to do is give away a goal after 40 seconds. Thanks to our generous defence that’s just what happened. Not sure why Jefferies did not get any sort of challenge in to stop the cross, but maybe that’s what you get when you have a right footer at left full back. Mind you the famous St Andrews atmosphere was a damp squib. The 1400 Imps fans as usual were outstanding, easily the man of the match. The Blues strolled the first half. One wonderful reaction save from Zack from Jutkiewicz bullet header was about it. Bailey had to score with our one first half chance. I am saying that with some self irony, as at Exeter when Jovon missed the target I wrote, Bailey would have scored that all day. How these things come back to bite you. It was poor quality fare. Brum had the majority of possession, but looked pretty half arsed. We tried hard but had little quality, Erhahon aside, who as always was the best player on the pitch.
In fairness, we upped the tempo in the second half, Brum again did very little. In fact until carthorse’s wonder goal they just assumed probably correctly that the game was won and we had nothing to hurt them. Unusually for a Birmingham game, we then had over 60% possession in the second half. Bailey and Jack both got hooked. I am a big fan of Jack, because at least he tries to make something happen, but he did keep running into cul de sacs. Freddie, Reeco and Tom came on and we did put Brum under pressure. Fred had two clear headers which on another day would have nestled in the corner of the goal, but on our current run of not scoring, drifted wide. The referee then obviously realised it was nearly 5 full games without scoring as he gave us a generous and preposterous penalty. A lovely swan dive from Montsma. There was still time for one of Freddie’s misses and a good save by Jeacock from Willumson.
A game, low on quality overall. We had 4 clear chances as did Birmingham. Both with one half chance each. Equal possession, we had more shots overall. They were just a bit more clinical, just like at Sincil Bank, where they had 3 chances and scored all of them. That is the difference that a squad of 35 million bring to the table. One win in 13 now. The pressure cooker starting to feel a bit more intense for the Imps management team. Despite our much reported recently bottom six budget. Heaven help us when Ethan departs. He is a true footballer. Special mention to Jeacock yesterday, he made two excellent saves, his kicking was assured and he looked confident against his old team. Also to Paudie who I am hearing played on again with a dislocated shoulder. I can forgive him the Bambi on ice non tackle that led to Dykes goal.”
