What a difference a couple of months makes. The last league match at Sincil Bank saw us go 2-0 down to Portsmouth, and the entire stadium got on their feet and applauded the team’s efforts.
The next EFL fixture at the stadium has the usual comments creeping back in about not being good enough, needing reinforcements, etc. Football, you have to love it.
I’ve got to a point in my Imps-supporting career where I feel the views of a few are enough to give me a reasonable overview of the general mood. I’m not interested in the ‘get it forward’ brigade who moan when we don’t get it forward right, or the same old names who reel out silly observations as soon as we lose a game. I’m not interested in the reactionaries either, the ones who see the result and let that immediately cloud their opinion. ‘Loss, bad. Win, good’ isn’t valuable insight, in my opinion, because over 46 games, you’ll lose matches and yet could still quite easily be promoted.
This might surprise him, but it’s people like Jack Mulhall who I rely on for some insight into what the balanced supporter is thinking, or those on our Patreon Discord who, more often than not, see both sides of every game, not just the shiny side of a 6-0 win and the dull side of a 2-1 defeat. Sadly, for the second weekend in a row, I have to rely on these opinions, as I wasn’t at the game.
It pained me, it really did, but I was at the wedding of one of my best friends (Dave) and my niece (Sam). With the ceremony scheduled for 3:15, there was no wiggle room. As it happened, delays meant we got underway at just before four, so the entire match was played out by a gentle buzzing on my thigh, like an undecipherable Morse code that let me know something was happening, but not exactly what. I never usually have notifications on, and the fear that they might interfere with my duties did make me a little sweaty.
Oh, I may have forgotten to mention I was the best man in charge of the music at the registry office, which meant my phone was connected to their speaker via Bluetooth. Genuinely, I feared at 4 pm, somehow, my Dad’s voice might suddenly come on the speakers saying ‘it’s f*cking sh*t mate’ as Dave was saying I do. Luckily, that didn’t happen because Dad, a man whose opinion is often very black-and-white but who gets my respect by default, didn’t think it was that bad. If Dad thinks that, and Jack Mulhall thinks that, and Chris thinks that, I’ve got a decent barometer of what it was actually like.
I mean, it was obviously disappointing to lose to a poor Barnsley side (I stand by that), not least because, watching the goals back, they were really quite poor. That’s part of my ‘process’ for games I can’t watch – I do the extended highlights, then overlay the Wyscout stats, pepper it with opinion and build from there. However, it’s usually away matches, and I’m not going to insult your intelligence for a second week by telling you what I think of a game you (most likely) watched but I didn’t.
I can pass some judgment on key issues that I’ve seen and perhaps seek to allay some of the negative vibes floating around. However, let’s start with those goals. From a defensive point of view, they’re really poor. The first is just a simple ball into the box, and Sean Roughan has lost track of his man. That man, Sam Cosgrove, was one Chris and I said we didn’t rate, so he was always nailed on to score, but it’s a moment’s lapse by Sean, and he won’t be happy with it at all.
The second isn’t quite as bad—Jacko rarely gets done in the air, but he’s been caught by their lad. I’m not sure he wasn’t being held down a little bit. From the angle of the Wyscout replay, it certainly looks that way, but there’s not a lot of appeal, so perhaps not. You’ve also got to ask questions about Duffy not stopping the cross – if the ball doesn’t come in, it doesn’t matter what is happening in the area.
Still, two poor goals from a defensive point of view. But, here’s the thing – their goals accounted for 0.35 of their xG, which totalled 0.47. Basically, they netted their two real chances, or should I say half chances, and created very little else. We managed almost three times as many shots, over three times as many on target, and almost three times as much xG, 1.33. If anything, we should have won this weekend and lost last weekend!
That’s why I’m not worried. Unhappy, sure. I hate losing, even more so when it doesn’t feel entirely just, but I can accept us creating chances and not scoring them. There’s a general feeling we’re struggling to take chances, but I’d rather that than two years ago when we failed to create. Last season, on this weekend, we won 1-0 at Shrewsbury, but our xG was 0.97 compared to their 1.24. You might think, ‘a win is a win, so that was better,’ but what happened after that? The fact we weren’t creating came back to bite us, and we ended up getting rid of the manager after really dull matches. I’m content that with a couple of weeks left in the window, we are creating.
Of course, then there’s the fact we should have had a penalty. Martin Coy was in charge at another home game on this little run, the defeat against Wigan that cost us badly in the promotion hunt last season. This time, he’s not given what is a stonewall penalty on Darikwa, one even Tykes fans must acknowledge was blatant. I don’t get the rules these days – fouls outside the area are given for the slightest thing, but inside the area, it has to be blatantly obvious. That’s wrong – a foul is a foul; it doesn’t matter where it is committed. Darikwa was chopped after crossing the ball, so maybe the referee thought the play had moved on or something, but a foul is a foul. It’s not rocket science, and while I always try to give refs the benefit of the doubt, this one simply seems to have it in for us (we know that’s not true, by the way, but it’s the only crumb of comfort I can glean from his two decisions either side of the summer).
As all of this was happening, Dave was doing the whole ‘for better and for worse’ thing, and it struck me as I sat down to write this that supporting your club should be like a marriage. I support Lincoln City for better or for worse, for richer and poorer and all of that. For me, it really is a ’till death us do part’ scenario, and while there will be ups and downs, a home defeat against Barnsley before the transfer window close, when you’ve already got three points on the board, is not one of those moments to consider divorce.
I can’t dissect the game to any real degree because I am still hungover. Friday night I was due to spend the night with Dave and just have a Chinese and a beer, but instead we rolled out of the Ivy Club at gone midnight. Last night was the same, we kept the Bailgate area awake until the clock struck 12, and the amber nectar fueled both nights. Therefore, me coming on here and saying ‘such and such played well’ would be disingenuous and arrogant, and I won’t do it. I’m disappointed we lost and disappointed I missed the game, but I am also not worried at all. Dad said it wasn’t too bad, Chris will pick it apart on the podcast later today and he’s not concerned, and even Jack said ‘we’re so close to being good‘, and I can handle that.
Like any good marriage, you have to take the highs with the lows, and if you waxed lyrical when we hammered Barnsley 5-1 last time, you need to stay committed when we’ve gone down 2-1 to them this time. Saying we need a striker on a day when our striker netted a great goal is nonsensical (we do need another up top I feel, but not as a result of this game), and pointing out a run of defeats at home that spans two seasons, and in one of those defeats the entire stadium applauded, is a hugely flawed argument. I’m not even going to bother arguing against those who claim Makama, and Draper is ‘not good enough’ on the evidence of one home game; I’ve got better things to do.
Such as recovering from my hangover and look forward to finally seeing Skubala’s Imps in League action next weekend.
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