The second period started much as the first started – Shrewsbury playing at a good, intense pace and testing us. I’m not a huge fan of Ryan Bowman and never have been, but he’s a player who certainly causes issues and who did prowl with menace all afternoon. I do like Jordan Shipley, and he was next to test Rushworth, making what will be his final Imps appearance. The young stopper stood firm, and as he slides back to Brighton, almost certainly with a Championship loan next season, he’s one keeper I can see going to the very top. His clean sheet was earned by a combination of his own stops, and the bar, which denied Street.
There was a moment in the second half where Lasse tried to play a ball through to Duffy (I think it was), and the move broke down. Almost immediately, Mark Kennedy waved Max Sanders up the touchline, and, much to my surprise, took Shodipo off. It was a switch to 3-5-2, a formation Shrewsbury have used to great effect against us in recent seasons, and one I would love to see us play regularly next season. I felt we immediately got a grip on the game, and finally even tested their keeper. Matty Virtue’s stinging drive was parried by Mariosi, but at last, we had something to cheer about. I turned to Matt and said, ‘that’s all it takes’ as suddenly the Bank felt like it was rocking.
The Shrews’ defence was also suddenly rocking, and within three minutes, we took a lead we barely deserved. That’s not to say we were bad, but Salop didn’t deserve to lose the game. Still, a long throw (something we’ve finally developed its season) ended up falling loose to Virtue, and he slammed home for the only goal of the game. It was great to sign off from a good season with a goal, another for the Blackpool loanee we’d all like to see back next season.
After that, we came alive, and we could have had a second after some fine work by sub Jovon Makama. He chased down a ball and set up House, only for the effort to be cleared, before Sanders hit a shot straight at the keeper. For 65 minutes, we’d looked second best, but in a gripping, if not enthralling, game, we conjured up 20 minutes to be proud of.
It all went off just before the end. House wriggled into the area, but couldn’t get away from the attentions of Dunkley, who dragged him down. Out came the red card, and a penalty to boot. It felt a bit harsh, if I’m honest – it’s probably a penalty, and I suppose the ref had no choice, but there were similarities between that and Rushworth’s red against Port Vale. The difference, in this instance, was the outcome from the spot. After Sanders and Boyes played rock, paper, scissors for the penalty, the winner, Sanders, wished he had pulled paper instead of rock, as Mariosi saved the spot kick. That came after an interlude where Erhahon got booked, and everyone started to get a bit heated. Paudie, the Player of the Season and future captain, dragged the youngster away, in a little bit of what the film industry would call foreshadowing. It was the move of a captain, three months before he gets announced.
That was that – not bad, considering I wasn’t going to go into too much depth. All through the second half, we were getting updates of the other scores, and I was as delighted to see Cambridge stay up as I was about us securing the win. I did notice that Fleetwood’s official account mocked Morecambe going down in a since-deleted tweet. How utterly classless. Fleetwood had the means to splash out on two players reported paid £6,000 per week each in January, which is probably collectively double Morecambe’s entire winter window budget, and they take pleasure in them going down? Fans can indulge in so-called ‘football Twitter’ until the cows go down, but clubs? Not for me; poor show.
The win wasn’t quite enough for us to get tenth, but 11th in his first season is pretty huge for Mark Kennedy and the team, and an achievement absolutely not to be sniffed at. Remember the stat from the top of the page – we’re the highest-placed team in the country not to have played in the Championship and earned the riches it brings. It underlines the fine work we’re doing in terms of recruitment, financing and growing the club. It’s our fourth successive season at this level, and ensures a fifth year in the third tier, equalling our stint here in the 1980s. We’re a club on the move, a club I feel may have finished a shade higher than perhaps I thought we would at Christmas, and a club that has finished much higher than 90% of our readers predicted at the beginning of the season.
It’s easy on a warm spring afternoon, safe from the threat of the drop, to become complacent about what we’ve achieved. But, if you cast your mind back to the warm summer’s day we drew with Exeter, you might remember apprehension, worry, and a slight pessimism. I do. I remember stepping into the unknown, post-Appleton, with genuine fear. I won’t lie or try to whitewash what I wrote back then, and I’ll be even more honest now – I was more scathing in private. My good friend Roy might tell you, or perhaps Chris, I was genuinely fearful of our direction. Not because I didn’t trust MK, but because the squad felt lightweight, it felt ill-equipped for the journey ahead, especially over the summer. When Exeter scored in those first 30 minutes, I wondered if we’d be the fodder, battling on the final day. I genuinely couldn’t have imagined finishing 11th, but here we are.
Last season, there was only one player going to win Player of the Year – Regan Poole. This season, House, Rushworth, Poole, and O’Connor were perhaps the four everyone thought might get it – Adam Jackson was an outsider for many as well. That’s progress in itself, I feel. Some of those won’t be with us next season, but the good performances have come from across the field, and some of the big players are here next season. Others who will definitely be in the running in 12 months, if we keep them, include Ethan Erhahon (excellent against this afternoon), and maybe even Lasse, who has captured the hearts of our fanbase this season, evident in his Away Player of the Season Award.
Next season, we’ll go to Pride Park. We’ll go to Fratton Park. We’ll go to the Madjeski. We’ll be regarded as a benchmark for the teams coming up, and we won’t be the ones teams coming down say, ‘who wants to go there’. We’re not a League Two team on a journey in a higher league – we’re an established League One team. I heard someone say as we left the ground, that ‘we’re only two or three signings from a top ten finish’ – we were only one win away from a top ten finish this season. A season that (may I remind you) started with Tom Hopper as our number nine and captain, that started with Chris Maguire in the squad, with Hakeeb Adelakun on the wing and Anthony Scully the only player that looked like scoring for us. Hopper and Scully were good for us (the other two not so), but this squad feels a million miles from that opening day. That’s progress. There have been hiccups (Chippenham….), but that’s football. It isn’t all Sweet Caroline and free-flowing fancy football.
However it started, the season has ended with a framework in place in terms of the squad, a nucleus that will ensure we do not go into next season fearing the unknown. We go into Mark Kennedy’s second season a year wiser, a year older and much closer to the sort of squad teams coming out of League One will fear playing.
I’ll take that as a good season’s work. Up the Imps.
You must be logged in to post a comment.