Welcome Back: Imps 2-1 Stockport County

October 27, 2024 Gary Headlines, Lincoln City, Matches, Reports 2

Stockport made three changes at the break, bearing in mind they’d been forced into one early as well. Off went captain Lewis Bate, former West Ham man Jayden Fevrier and keeper Corey Addai… yep, that’s right. I’ve never seen it, but Challinor took his captain and keeper off at half time. No injury to either, with Addai removed, one assumes, because of the mistake for Darikwa’s goal. He might have done better with House’s header, but Wickens will feel the same with their finish. It felt to me like a knee-jerk reaction to a problem that wasn’t really there.

There was method in madness. Stockport shifted their shape around, and they looked much better after the break. Former Imps striker Kyle Wootton has come on since his time with us and he certainly gave us a different threat to deal with, but our back three were excellent. Sean Roughan, once again, put in an almost faultless display at left centre half, and Lewis Montsma did the same on the other side.

In fact, Montsma was close to being my Man of the Match. That trademark glide was back, the effortless ease with which he carries the ball looked so good. It’s been 581 days since his last League One start, and I felt we got a little flashback of the old Lewis. One moment, a ball lofted into Cadamarteri down the right flank, was classic Montsma, and the striker’s ball across was excellent, almost creating a chance. For some reason, with him and Hamilton back, we seemed to flow a whole lot better. Maybe it was the opposition. Maybe it was momentum, character, or whatever. Maybe, it was some players we’ve missed creeping back to form. I should throw Reeco in there as well, perhaps not as standout as the other two, but certainly getting back to full fitness.

I’m not going to say we completely dominated, Stockport always had an air of menace, like a seagull eyeing your chips on Skeggy seafront. I’m going to let the core stats make a statement though. 12 shots from us, six from them. Five on target from us, two from them. 22 touches in the box for us, eight for them. You can talk about eye tests and strip it right back, you can (finally, in Chris’s eyes) talk about field tilt, xG and everything else, but ultimately, nothing demonstrates how yesterday’s game went better than those really basic stats.

When we got our winner, it was really poor defending, even after Challinor’s half time overhaul. It’s so simple – a corner into the front of the box, and there’s Cadamarteri, with time to leap like a salmon, add salmon to his shopping list, take in his surroundings and wink at the camera before powering a bullet header past the second keeper of the day to make it 2-1. It was an absolute reward for his endeavours and gave us a justified lead. Remember, that’s three league goals from nine outings he has for us. In fact, across our opening 12 matches, our strikers have scored ten league goals, which suggests we perhaps do not lack up front, not as much as some suggest.

Stockport weren’t done, and Wickens made a big save from former Imp Kyle Wootton before the end. It was nice for him to help pull the points out of the bag, as it’s been a challenging eight days for the former Fulham keeper. He commanded his area well yesterday, making some brave punches from corners, and getting a save under his belt as well will help with any lost confidence from the Birmingham and Crawley matches.

Of course, the important thing here is three points against a side that, after three or four games, looked like genuine top-two contenders. It’s putting the challenging week behind us with a win, and ensuring that we’re back on track. However, there’s more to the game than that – it was about more than a one-off result. It was about those returning players, perhaps most importantly Lewis Montsma, but also Ethan Hamilton, who was utterly outstanding. That said, I thought everyone played well. I’ve not mentioned Dom Jeffries, slotting into midfield for the second game, running and putting in a tireless display. I say ‘tireless’; he looked absolutely exhausted at the end, and for a moment, I wondered if he might go off, but he got the 90 minutes.

The Man of the Match, in my eyes, was Tendayi. He’s got an immense engine, can attack and defend in equal measure and leads by example. It wasn’t just his assist, but the setup for Hamilton in the first half as well. Whenever he got the ball we looked dangerous, and those little neat passing patterns we find often involved him. I really like to see that – as you know I’ve been lucky enough to watch some training and different drills recently, and you can see those drills being executed in matches. I thought we played out well yesterday, out of danger, out of our half or out of congestion after winning the ball back high.

We march on to Tuesday now, and another home game that you feel is there for the taking. If we can sign off before the FA Cup break with another three points, we’ll have taken nine from five matches over the course of the month. If you take nine points from every set of five matches, you’ll be around the 80 mark, and that will ding dang do for me.

Up the Imps.

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2 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

  1. Lincoln City Bounce Back with Victory Over Stockport County as Skubala Praises Team Resilience - EFL Hub
  2. ‘Nailed on Penalty’ – Opposition Reaction From The Weekend’s Win Against Stockport County | The Stacey West

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