City’s improvement in the first half certainly carried over to the early part of the second. Immediately after the restart, the Imps created a lovely passing move, Scully feeding in Eyoma who delivered a telling cross into the box. Bolger had to lift the ball away as Hopper lurked for a tap in, but it was an early warning for the visitors.
A Cobblers corner on 48 minutes almost resulted in an opening goal for the Imps. It was comfortably cleared and suddenly the Imps poured forward, with Scully away on the attacking right. His ball was cleared for a corner, and the resulting delivery saw Hopper challenge Mitchell, with the home side getting the danger away.
Whilst not always fluid, the Imps still looked more dangerous. On 52 minutes another nice move saw Scully cut infield, then play a sweet ball into Grant on the edge of the area, who was felled. The midfielder picked himself up, only to see his effort blocked for another corner. If anything, it was a little too close to goal, resulting in him going for power. From the corner kick we got nothing, which seemed to be the order of the afternoon – Northampton are a big team comfortable in clearing aerial balls all afternoon.
Northampton did make rare forays forward but didn’t create anything clear cut as the half began to slow down. They lost the pace from their game and the closest they came in the opening 15 minutes came from Mills’ deep free-kick, neither a cross nor a shot, which went straight at Palmer.
Still City couldn’t quite click, although Bridcutt did almost tee up Johnson on the hour mark. He got to the touchline and lifted the ball to the on-loan Forest man, who controlled it on his chest and saw his shot deflected wide. Shortly after, Tom Hopper took a great ball from Adam Jackson in the area, but his shot was blocked by Bolger, who certainly put his body on the line against his former employers.
There were still moments for Northampton, who did look far happier with a point as the game went on. Bridcutt and Edun briefly seemed to miscommunicate which resulted in a decent cross from Hoskins, but nobody looked likely to get on the end of it.
The game started to see a few niggly fouls creeping in, from both teams, and shortly after McGrandles came on for Rogers, we got away with one. Walsh almost certainly pulled back Benny Ashley-Seal right on the edge of the area, but it went unpunished.
The deadlock was finally broken on 75 minutes, after another nice spell of Imps’ possession. It might not have been a flowing game at all times, but when we did find the right gear, we certainly looked more likely to score, and so it proved. Grant and Edun exchanged passes with the latter getting away down the left. The Imps had created nothing from that side in the first half, but Edun’s smart pull back found McGrandles lurking, and the former MK Dons man slotted home from ten yards to give the Imps a hard-fought lead.
With ten minutes left on the clock, the visitors felt they should have had a penalty, and having watched back three or four times I can’t make my mind up. It was a dangerous break with Ashley-Seal knocking the ball into the path of Hoskins. He was eight yards out when Bridcutt put in a challenge, seemingly catching the ball and the man. There wasn’t a big shout from the Cobblers’ players though, and the ball was cleared.
There could then have been one at the other end too. This time Johnson was the man who got away, skinning Bolger and pulling a pass back across the area. All eyes were on the clearance from Lloyd Jones, but few watched as Bolger took Johnson out after the ball had gone. Personally, I think the two penalty shouts were both valid, and won’t complain too much neither were given.
On 84 minutes the Imps finished things off. Hopper got away on the attacking left, took his time to check his run before pulling the ball across to Scully. He fired into an empty net, but it was far from easy with pace on the ball. It is the former West Ham man’s 12th of the season in all competitions and a sign of his growing stature as a cemented first-team regular.
The Imps looked to retain the ball after that, and Grant might even have made it three with a lofted effort from the edge of the area, but it went well over. There seemed to be little threat as we went into five minutes of injury time, but two moments of magic almost impacted the game. Firstly, Sam Hoskins outrageous long-range effort beat Palmer but struck the post. Then Danny Rose, on as a sub in the aftermath of our second, got a stunning consolation. A long punt from Mitchell was nodded down to the edge of the area, and Rose hit a wonderful overhead kick from 18 yards into the net. Whilst it will be little more than a footnote at the end of a vital win, Michael Appleton might be disappointed that it means we still only have two clean sheets in the last nine league encounters.
Still, clean sheets don’t win you leagues, points do, and the Imps came away with all three as Anthony Backhouse immediately brought proceedings to a close.
I’ve seen some comments on social media about not playing well, but aside from the first 20 minutes or so I’m not sure I agree. I think we faced a more organised side than we did a month ago, a side who were happy to go back to front quick, but also one that had much more cohesion. Northampton didn’t look like a team in relegation trouble to me, they worked tremendously hard and made it tough for us. It wasn’t a dirty game, but it was a tough one and we had to roll with those punches and shine when we could. In patches, it wasn’t pretty, but we did show glimpses of the real Lincoln City, with nice passing moves and counter-attacking.
I also think sometimes, pace alone isn’t enough. I keep seeing comments about our pace, hell I even keep making them, but as I said with Zack Elbouzedi, sometimes it isn’t pace which wins you a game. There wasn’t much green space behind the Cobblers full-backs this afternoon, which makes pace redundant unless we’re on the counter. It is perhaps no coincidence that the goals we did score didn’t come from pacey runs, but from intricate passing and smart timed runs into the box. Yes, Morgan Rogers looked to be acclimatising a bit, but he will be able to open those legs in matches where teams have to come onto us, like Tuesday night.
There were plenty of stellar performances out there this afternoon, plenty of players who put in a good shift without standing out in the big moves. Joe Walsh had a decent afternoon I felt, and could easily have had a goal, and Tom Hopper returned seamlessly to the side. It didn’t always work for Scully, or Eyoma, but they were both willing and the latter could be a candidate for MoM even with a handful of misplaced passes to his name. I know some people are being critical of Bridcutt, but I felt he put in another assured performance and if we say the penalty incident was in fact a great tackle, then he actually had a blinder!
I’ll go with Tayo Edun though. Granted, he didn’t have a quick winger to worry about, but he offers plenty going forward and has so much energy it is untrue. For a player in his first full season of senior football (he’s had loans and the odd appearance here and there before now) I think he is learning fast. Remember, much of his football has been played as a midfielder too, so he is learning a new position and I think he keeps getting better and better. He threw in an assist today, but rarely put a foot wrong.
I said five or seven points from the next three games would be a great haul, and we’ve started that off by taking three forms the first. Portsmouth got a whacking at home today too, a surprise result in my eyes, and they could well be there for the taking on Tuesday. People talk about wounded animals and all that, but I wonder if the reaction from Jackett could be changes and disruption. I also think playing them so quickly helps us – they have little time to prepare for us and they might have an air of complacency having played so well against us when we were below par last time out. Dare I say, I do fancy us to get a point there and if we do, we’ll go into Donny a week today full of beans.
Still, for now let’s savour our first league double of the campaign and a three-point gap in the race for the automatics. Also, one thing is for sure – win lose or draw against Pompey, we’ll still be above them going into next weekend.
https://www.ntfc.co.uk/news/20202/september/ricky_korboa/
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