Views from Luke Willson following Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at home against Crawley Town in Sky Bet League Two: “Tough watch today at SB from our point of view but also the match generally. Difficult with a swirling wind and rain.
We were better with 10 than we were with 11. Crawley were happy to sit in and didn’t touch the ball in our box until the 80th minute or something.
The life of a lower league football fan where your team churns out a 90-minute performance a week earlier and you wonder what on earth happened the next game!
First half we didn’t get going at all. Crawley saw most of the ball but didn’t really threaten bar Palmer somehow missing from about 2 yards, albeit a ball fired in across a very wet surface and Akinde had a similar misfortune at the other end.
Andrade(?) seemed to get caught in the build-up to their first and looked a clear foul but they played on down that side.
Second half and on first viewing, it looked a red card for Frecklington and that kicked us into some sort of action, really. With losing O’Connor to injury and Freck within 10 minutes, we had two number ten type of players in CM and couldn’t really get enough quality into Akinde who was isolated having moved from 4-3-3 to 4-4-1.
Mensah missed a good chance at the end but given the quality on show from both sides, a 0-0 was probably about right. The game summed up by Bostwick’s OG, which seemed to deflect and get sliced in.
Crawley were decent enough. Decent at the back and in midfield with a couple of lively players I forward areas but poor final balls. They’ll be a good bet for top half with an outside chance of the PO’s.
The ref was baffling in some of his decision makings. Got the big ones correct, not that there were many to make, but inconsistent in his fouls. Shackell gets penalised for hand ball and their player does exactly the same thing, pretty much in the same position only two minutes later and gives nothing. To give him some credit, he booked 3 Crawley players in quick succession for bringing down Pett, Anderson and Andrade in almost identical challenges as they were countering.”
More views from the Match Thread:
Jaggy Imp: “Might be in the minority here, but I thought that Crawley were a really decent outfit. Played some nice stuff and pressed and hassled us all over the pitch. We just seemed really flat and didn’t create that much although we clearly carried a lot of attacking threat. Too often we seemed a bit lightweight in midfield and I would have taken Pett off a lot earlier.”
PerthImp: “I actually thought Freck & O’Connor were a bit off the pace today or targetted by Crawley to nullify their contribution. Thought Crawley were excellent with their pressing and some really bright play in patches, especially in the first half. Good away performance. Andrade may have been caught in the face when he went down, but why did the rest of the team hesitate – play to the whistle. No doubt about Freck’s red card – Hortin & Thommo called it instantly before the ref had even made up his mind. Don’t understand why Akinde is attracting negative comments – I thought he played well today with some excellent movement and link-up play, and one or two moments of great close control. Unlucky not to score. Just think his performance was matched by some others – below par.
Overall, just not our day – move on to Macclesfield. “Don’t get too down when we lose”.”
Thank you to Graham Burrell and Lincoln City Football Club for the photograph!
"We were better with 10 than we were with 11.":https://t.co/6NCSKc1fr2#ImpsAsOne #TownTeamTogether #EFL
— Vital Lincoln City (@VitalLincoln) September 10, 2018
https://www.facebook.com/VitalLincolnCity/posts/1849129788456591
Sincil Bank Stadium
Sky Bet League Two
8/09/2018 4:00 pm
Attendance: 8321
Referee: Matthew Donohue
| Lincoln City | Crawley Town | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bostwick 45' (og) | |||||||
| Smith | Morris | ||||||
| O'Connor | 53' | Young | |||||
| Shackell | Connelly | ||||||
| Pett | 83' | Palmer | |||||
| Frecklington | Francombe | 70' | |||||
| Andrade | 72' | Nathaniel-George | 90' | ||||
| Toffolo | Maguire | ||||||
| Bostwick | Bulman | ||||||
| Eardley | Morais | ||||||
| Anderson | Camara | ||||||
| Akinde | N'Gala | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Slocombe | Mersin | ||||||
| Gordon | Doherty | 70' | |||||
| Wharton | McNerney | 90' | |||||
| Rhead | 83' | Poleon | |||||
| Green | Gambin | ||||||
| McCartan | 53' | Randall | |||||
| Mensah | 72' | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 12 | Goal attempts | 8 |
| 5 | On Target | 3 |
| 8 | Corners | 3 |
| 12 | Fouls | 11 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 5 |
| 1 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 57 | % | 43 |