With League One safety almost guaranteed, City took on a Wigan side that moved top of the division in midweek, and have their sights firmly set on a return to the Championship, writes Kyle Kennealey.
The Latics took a massive step towards doing just that with victory at Sincil Bank on Saturday afternoon, with a brace from Lang and a strike from Will Keane securing the points. Scully had levelled the game after a quarter of an hour, making the most of the opportunity when the ball fell to him inside the area. But that was as good as it got for the Imps, with Wigan the superior outfit on the day, and in my opinion, one of the best sides to come to Sincil Bank this season.
I asked wigan_athletic_news_ and latics.latest for their thoughts on the game.
What are your overall thoughts on Saturday’s game?
WAN: Both teams started well and the first half was important for deciding the winner of the match I feel.
I don’t think any Lincoln fan would disagree you were one of the best sides to come to us this season, but we felt aggrieved with a number of decisions, including a penalty appeal, not going in our favour. What did you make of the officials performance?
WAN: I can understand why they feel that way, having been at the game, I did think we were more fortunate with the decisions. I thought our players went down quite easily, and I was nervous when Naylor went flying into your player, had to be a yellow in my opinion, at least. But then again I remember seeing the ball take a deflection from our shot, and no corner was given. Overall, the decisions weren’t enough to change the game.
LL: Feel the referee’s decisions were mostly fair. The penalty could’ve been given either way but I think the ref gave it right. Also seen your manager complain about Naylor being sent off and a foul from Magennis for our third goal but I still believe the referee got the decisions right. In my opinion, we deserved our win, we definitely should have scored more than 3 but you could also argue that you could have scored more than one.
We upset the form book earlier in the campaign with a two-one win at the DW Stadium. How do you feel our side fared yesterday compared to the one you faced back in October?
WAN: I was quite surprised at how well Lincoln started, a shot early on dragging wide of the goal, and you looked dangerous going forward first half, but I think we took a while to settle too. I was very impressed with Scully, but I reckon we deserved to win the game.
LL: You played us in October during a period that saw us lose 3 Tuesday night games in a row, potentially due to our lack of rotation but you were just a quality side last time we played you.
Injuries have really disrupted our campaign, and left us short at the back again yesterday. How do you feel your forwards fared against our defence, particularly with goalkeeper Jordan Wright in good form?
WAN: Considering the wages your players are probably on compared to ours, I’d say you defended pretty well most of the time, but Wigan seemed to win more of our 1 on 1 battles, headers, and interceptions, and that was the difference.
LL: I didn’t think your goalkeeper played too badly, I feel like he couldn’t have really done anything for the 3 goals and made a few important saves for you lot.
Yesterday’s results leave you three points clear at the top and six clear of Rotherham in third. Are you confident you can go onto secure promotion and ultimately the title?
WAN: If we win our next 2 games against Burton and Cambridge, I’ll be very confident, especially if either MK Dons or Rotherham drop more points.
LL: I’m now very confident of securing promotion because at most we need 9 points from a possible 18 (however that could come down depending on MK Dons and Rotherham’s results) and it’s 12 at the very most for the title which is still easily doable.
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