These games, and by that I mean Vertu Trophy games, always feel really odd to me.
I don’t usually care if we win or lose, but I want us to win. By that, I mean I can handle the experimental aspect of the squad, and if we lose, we can just shrug our shoulders and say ‘fair enough’ without too much to worry about. If we win, I come away with that warm, glowing feeling one gets when Lincoln City win a game. It’s strange to be invested, but also know that if you fall and hit the bottom, it’s not really going to hurt.
There will be many that say yesterday was experimental, with Oisin Gallagher in the defence, but aside from that, we did put a team out to win the game. Okay, Erik Ring, Dylan Duffy, and JJ McKiernan might not have started many games, but all have still started in the league. Bailey Cadamarteri is a player many want to start, and Freddie Draper started at the weekend. Roughan and Darikwa are not just starters; they’re essential to our first team structure. Ethan Hamilton was, for a short while last season, our best Ethan.
The big news was the bench: Tyler Walker and Tom Bayliss. Those are two players I believe can affect our season going into 2025, and to see them available not only for selection, but also minutes, is massive. I’ll come onto that shortly.
I thought we started the game well against a resolute Morecambe side. They had a bit to prove after being stuffed in the league by the Codheads on Saturday, and players like Hallam Hope, David Tutonda and Ben Tollitt are experienced professionals in a position to fight for football matches. They’re not carefree kids given a chance with no pressure – Derek Adams clearly wanted something from this game. After the first ten minutes, I couldn’t work out whether he might actually get it.
We had a decent spell, they did, and it turned into one of those engrossing matches where, because there’s not really anything on the line, I was more like Chris than ever before, watching shape, passing lanes and field tilt (okay, maybe not the last one, I still think of tropical soft drinks when he goes on about that). In league fixtures, I do occasionally get blinded by occasion, by a desire to win, but the Vertu Trophy gives me clarity beyond desire, if that makes sense. Because I don’t desperately want the win, I can enjoy the spectacle. Just to clarify, I didn’t want us to lose, but if I were sitting here writing up a defeat, I wouldn’t have that sick feeling I do when we’ve lost in the league.
The moment that ultimately won it came early (unlike Saxon Earley, who seemingly didn’t come at all), and it came from real quality. Dylan Duffy got away down the left and lifted in the sort of cross that a good striker will gobble up all day long. With six goals in all competitions and three in this competition, Cadamarteri is a good striker. His header was excellent, beating the Morecambe keeper with relative ease. His header was outstanding, and when I say ‘relative ease’ that was only because he made it look easy. He’s now second in the scorers charts in the trophy, but I wonder if he might be denied more via a Sheffield Wednesday recall.
After that, the game fizzled out a little bit; being honest, Morecambe had a few chances, all shots off target (eight in total), and we perhaps looked as if we’d settled into a nice rhythm rather than pushing really hard for a second. It began to feel like a Vertu Trophy tie, where the avoidance of injury was as important as not conceding a goal. Sadly, that avoidance of injury didn’t extend to JJ McKiernan, who limped off before half time. I really feel for JJ – he’s here on a four-year deal but is clearly desperate to play, especially against his old side. He didn’t look like he wanted to come off at all, but was eventually forced to.
I also noticed one moment involving Dom Jeffries where I think our midfielder was quite lucky. It was a little exchange of challenges in the middle of the park, and as the camera panned away, I thought Jeffries went in a little over the top, landing studs-first on one of their players. The comms suggested the challenge had been another player, but there’s no doubt it was Jeffries. He had a decent game, but in the second half he was clattered off the ball sparking a bit of life into the game, and it struck me it might be in retribution for his first half challenge.
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