Wrong, Groundhog Day can be put to bed for now. They say the definition of madness is trying the same thing and expecting different results, but I don’t buy that here. I think we should be doing the same things, we should just be doing them better. We should tackle harder, pass better, shoot more accurately and defend stronger. The actual process got us to within a water vole’s willy of the Championship last season, and I don’t believe we should change that and expect the same outcome. There’s my definition of madness; doing something right, getting the outcome you want, then changing it at the first sign of trouble and expecting similar success. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and our approach ain’t broke; it’s the execution that’s lacking. We need to do what we did last season, we just need to do it better than we have been doing. For me, that summed up the second half of yesterday’s game. Nothing changed in terms of our style, we just got better at it.
Much better.
There were 606 minutes between our second goal at Wigan and the first yesterday. 606 minutes of football in which Lincoln fans had seen a brace of goals. There were 22 between our goals yesterday, a huge improvement, but before I come onto that, there was 25 minutes of the second half in which I was still worried, because again we spurned a good chance, and couldn’t make what felt like dominance pay in a game. I’m not looking down on Cheltenham here, they’re a decent side and were better than Accrington, Hartlepool, Crewe and Carlisle, which is why I was worried. That said, they’re not a top-half side, and that in itself is still a concern. We’re not, I get that, but the XI on the field yesterday should have still won the game. We shouldn’t have conceded the first, but at least we showed fight.
Adelakun, who must be wondering what he has to do to score, almost got us the leveller after rounding the keeper on 62 minutes, but his effort was cleared off the line. We finally get a good ball in to a player, he makes the right choice and even then we can’t get a goal. I felt like banging my head against a wall; such was the frustration. I was already planning my next article: Groundhog Day 3 (more groundhogs). After all, the ingredients were all there; we were the marginally better team, gifted goal, lack of killer instinct up top.
I’ve criticised Ted Bishop, in terms of not seeing the quality which had people suggesting he was the next Jorge Grant. Mind you, I fell into my own trap there, as I also said we shouldn’t bill him as that. He’s been unfortunate, played out of position as a necessity and injured intermittently, and what I hope is we saw yesterday a blueprint for him going forward (literally, and metaphorically). He looked a constant menace, from right back, and when we needed a moment of class to get some confidence, he delivered. At last, someone scored a goal for Lincoln City.
It started with a free kick rolled short, which almost had me tearing my hair out, but Bishop gave me a proverbial middle finger by producing a sumptuous finish from outside the area to level. It was wonderful technique, a delicate side-footed effort into the roof of the net. We. Scored. A. Goal. I’d forgotten how to celebrate, but it soon came back to me.
Suddenly, we were a different side, a huge weight got lifted off our shoulders and the players appeared to be released. I felt if there was a winner, then there would only be yellow shirts celebrating the fact, and we laid siege for a short while, Freddie Draper got away and could have got us a second, only for a great save from Flinders. Incidentally, Fiorini was the provider of that chance, and he looked suddenly confident again. One goal turned us from the shot-shy charlatans of midweek to the Lincoln City that brushed aside Cambridge with ease. Ok, we didn’t quite find that stride, but imagine that confidence with Hopper and Scully around the team as well. It felt good, so good, so good (you get that reference, right?).
With one minute of injury time played (and after a couple of decent saves from Griffiths by the way), Christmas arrived early. We put our trees up in the house in the morning, played a few Christmas songs and got into the mood, and Santa Bishop produced the good, lain on by one of his little helpers, Lewis Fiorini. His pass found the former Ipswich man, and once again he placed a great effort past Flinders, this time across goal and just inside the post. 2-1 City. We’ve only bloody gone and got a second.
Oh the excitement at the thought of winning a game. Those two points wouldn’t have moved us up the table anymore, but it felt like a massive, massive moment. It felt like the point where you hear the bottom being scraped, and everyone says ‘enough is enough’ and you move upwards. It felt like we’d turned a corner, only for the ghost of Christmas past (sloppy defending) to come back and remind us there is work to do.
We got four minutes of injury time, but having scored in one of those minutes, there was always likely to be some added on. A late free-kick or the hosts got pumped into the box and we desperately blocked shots… it felt a lot like Burton away. However, the last kick in that game brought a save, the last touch in this one brought a gut-punching, heart-wrenching, all-to-predictable leveller. I’m not one for scapegoats (takes notes, Kate), but there was a seemingly mindless header from one of our own defenders back across goal to set up their late strike. Like I said earlier, those or the breaks; when your luck isn’t in, one error is punished. Sadly, when you’re Lincoln City with a patched-up defense and a soft underbelly, one error is a bloody good day. Two isn’t a bad one.
There are so many positives to take from the draw, however upsetting the late goal was. Cheltenham are a better team than we’ve faced of late, and we didn’t lose. They did have chances to score, but we defended doggedly until the mad moment. We had as many shots on target (seven) as we have had in our last three home games combined, and had we scored earlier, I think the team would have pushed on and done even better. Most of all though, we scored goals and the team suddenly looked confident. They’ll go into next week’s game brimming with belief that finally, a corner has been turned. I kinda wish it’d been a defeat at home on Tuesday, and that we were away next weekend, because I fear the green shoots could be drowned by some elements of the home crowd (get it forward) long before we see a fair reflection of what we can do.
All I hope for now is a return of two or three points from the two home games, and maybe even four (Rotherham we’ll write off for now). That will usher in January and I still believe the process we have will work once the right components are in place. What I do feel more positive about now is that of the players who have not done as well in recent weeks (Adelakun, Fiorini and Bishop in particular), a little confidence goes a long way, and a 2-2 draw at Cheltenham might just be the catalyst for a little confidence to return.
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