This was once our Player of the Month article, but I’ve opted to turn it into a bit more of a monthly review, albeit quite a brief one!
August was a decent month, with three wins and two defeats. One of those defeats saw us eliminated from the League Cup, meaning our league record was played four, won three, scored nine and conceded five. We kept a single clean sheet, getting the season off to a promising start.
Sa 10Aug 2024 Burton 2 – 3 Lincoln
Tu 13Aug 2024 Lincoln 1 – 2 Harrogate
Sa 17Aug 2024 Lincoln 1 – 2 Barnsley
Sa 24Aug 2024 Lincoln 4 – 1 Mansfield
Sa 31Aug 2024 Stevenage 0 – 1 Lincoln
The Stacey West allows the reader to rate each player after a game, coming up with a definite Player of the Month. To qualify, a player must have played in 50% of the games that month, and to get a rating a player must have been on the field of play for 15 minutes or more as a sub.
With that in mind, here is your Player of the Month, and the best and worst of the team’s performances.
Player of the Month
1: Tendayi Darikwa (7.70)
No doubting your Player of the Month for August 2024 – our new right back, Tendayi Darikwa. His high-energy runs certainly had plenty of you impressed, and he the Man of the Match Award in the game against Barnsley. His outing against Barnsley was his lowest rating, but it was still enough to mark him as your top man.
It’s easy to see why – losing Lasse was a blow, but in Tendayi we seem to have found someone with equal energy and application, which is great. The best of the rest were 2: Paudie O’Connor (7.36), 3: Sean Roughan (7.35), 4: Adam Jackson (6.82), 5: Tom Bayliss (6.76)
Individual Performance of the Month
Sean Roughan (Mansfield Town, H) 8.5
On his 99th outing for the club, Sean Roughan really impressed. Up against some tough attackers, he excelled and showed a cool, calm head throughout. He got forward and helped in attack, but was resolute at the back as well. He chipped in with a goal and helped with an assist – a super day for the young Irishman.
It’s shaping up to be a good season for Sean – many more games like that and the scouts will come flooding to the Bank.
Best Team Performance of the Month
v Mansfield Town (H) 7.26
I’m not saying we have some trolls on the site, but how this game ‘only’ gets a collective 7.26, I don’t know. Bear in mind, this was our first league win against our local rivals since around the time Charlie Beeston was born, and the sort of result that will stick in the mind for many, many years. That said, beating Cambridge United 6-0 didn’t break the ‘8’ ceiling, but drawing 1-1 with Plymouth did. Baffling.
Still, whatever the site says, I know this was a stonking result that really laid down a marker. We needed ti – back-to-back defeats had us wobbling a bit, but there’s nothing like four home goals to get fans excited.
Worst Team Performance of the Month
Harrogate Town (H) – 5.21
Again, I’m not sure if we have some trolls, but this really wasn’t a 5.21 game. In my opinion, we were unlucky, architects of our own downfall in a game we should have wrapped up by halftime. These ratings are telling me this game was worse than Cambridge at home a couple of seasons ago, the game where Mark Kennedy finally lost my belief. That scored 5.31. This wasn’t that bad at all.
I guess it’s a symptom of the ‘win good, lose bad’ train of thought. I don’t doubt it was the worst performance of the month, but 5.21? Really?
You must be logged in to post a comment.