I won’t ever forget Michael Skubala’s first game in charge. I went to watch us play Stevenage, and it was awful.
Yesterday was kind of the same. We weren’t awful; it was just an awful game, not a spectacle but a battle. I guess that’s football; it’s not always art. It’s not a spectator sport at all, not really. We happen to be there, believing it is about us. We even get told it’s all about us by our club, but in the main, it is two teams trying to win a game of football by any means necessary. We’re the side issue.
Stevenage win by bullying. Carl Piergianni wins it by reffing the game himself where he can. They know all the tricks, all the little moves to get ahead. They’re strong; they’ll knock you about and play the victim. For want of a better word, they’re shithouses. We should know, it’s (partly) what helped get us from the National League to League One. I like to think we did it with a bit more finesse, but I’m sure to fans outside of Lincoln, Matt Rhead and Carl Piergianni are not all that different. Liam Bridcutt was a genius at reffing the game for the officials. What we saw this weekend was nothing we haven’t done ourselves.
That’s why I feared a little for this fixture. You might be able to take the Evans out of Stevenage, but it seems he’s left his greasy pawprints all over this team. I’m not snobby about it; I don’t like it, but it’s effective. They’re not going up, that is for certain, but if they do to others what they did to us this weekend, they’ll most likely take enough points at home to ensure they stay up with ease. Needs must.
While progress doesn’t appear to be on Alex Revell’s agenda, it is certainly on Michael Skubala’s. We know Stevenage don’t change, we know they do what they do well, and it works more often than not. We know last time we went to Broadhall Way, they bullied us, all over the park. Could we stand up to them this time around? Had we progressed under Michael Skubala?
Let me put it another way. We know we’ve progressed, because we’re looking up, not down, and we’re tucked in the top half nicely. There are still some types of games where we need to see if we’ve progressed. Can we beat a low block (that’s a defence sitting back in the new football language)? We’ll have to wait and see about that, but the other question was, can we avoid being bullied by a time of bullies?
The answer, it seems, is yes.
This isn’t a game about which I can write a lot. I’m sitting here trying to think of a single highlight to mention, and I can’t. I can’t recall a single big chance that stands out as game-changing. The first 80 minutes of the game have fused into this grey mess in my mind. It’s a bit like when, as a kid, you got those packs of plasticine with wonderful colours. There were yellows, reds, blues and greens, but it was just a grey, messy ball within five minutes of me getting my hands on it. That was this game – a rainbow of hope before kick-off, but quickly, it became a quagmire of grey.
If I’m honest, trying to recall without any notes or reference, I feel the first 15 minutes were theirs. I don’t really think they had a chance, but like an Evans team, they were route one to get to the final third, but then tried to pick up bits and pieces. I felt Jordan Roberts looked a bit of a threat for them, and I quite liked Dan Kemp as well (the word ‘like’ doing a lot of heavy lifting there). They were effective at what they did, but even in the first fifteen minutes, it became very clear who the main man was.
He was the guy wearing yellow, the one with the whistle. I don’t want to be too scathing, but he helped them immensely by breaking up the play at every opportunity. We bought cheap fouls; they did the same. They then got away with actual fouls as the officiating seemed to descend into more of a random selection of decisions rather than anything based on the action. David Rock has been quite controversial in Imps games in the past, sending off three against Port Vale, sending off Sean Raggett back in 2016. He always felt on the cusp of a collapse, and it ruined the game even more.
I was really positive about last week’s referee. but Rock’s performance is more memorable than any shot I recall. He would tell Piergianni off for grappling (on average) every six minutes, but never booked him. He allowed players to win cheap fouls, but then there were passages of play where actual fouls were committed that he waved on. He made two big decisions late on, one that changed the game and one that could change the game in a fortnight, but throughout the afternoon, he felt like a magic eight-ball – you never quite knew what response you were going to get from him.
The one big change that stuck in my mind came from Jacko’s hesitation. Usually dependable, he dallied over a header and let in Tyreece Simpson. For a moment, I thought they’d score, but Wickens got the slightest of touches to send the ball wider than the striker would have liked. He lashed the shot into the stands, and Jacko (hopefully) thanked his keeper for the little tickle of the football. That, in essence, was the first half.
This may seem like a cop out, but I can’t say much more about that half, that’s how memorable it was. I recall thinking our back three were outstanding, not letting anything pass, making plenty of first contacts, and I know Jeffries and Erhahon put in a shift as well, but the front players were starved of any real meaningful touches, and whenever Jovon got near the ball, Piergiannia took a tumble and the ref gave the free kick. It was a frustrating watch, but we were drawing 0-0 and never looked troubled, so I was happy enough.
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