Goals. That’s what it is all about. That’s the length and breadth of it, the long and short, done and dusted.
Twats like me can come on here with our hipster beards, our xG and our PPDA and tell you that we’re not all that bad after a loss, but it’s really simple. Score more goals than the opposition, and you’ve played well. Score fewer, and you’re rubbish. That’s it, you may as well stop reading and go over to bask in the unusual positivity of Twitter for an hour or two.
Does it matter that we actually had fewer shots on target last night than Saturday, when we lost to Leyton Orient? Or that our xG was lower last night than when we played bottom-side Cambridge United ten days ago? Does it matter we had our lowest amount of possession since December 7th and the 0-0 draw with Charlton? Of course not. We beat a perceived rival on their ground. There’s no stat for that. We got an incredible moment for a hometown hero, a bona fide badge-kissing memory to take home with us. There’s no number you can put on that (unless you look in the badge kissing column, which does show a ‘1’ for us now this season).
Of course, I’m being both factual and a little facetious in the same breath here. I’m essentially saying that a result like this has been coming, and if we’d cut out silly mistakes and be a little more clinical in front of the goal (or, indeed, 34 yards dead level with the goal), we’d have picked up nine points from nine. Just because we won at Field Mill, doesn’t mean we’re going to finish top six. Just because we lost at Brisbane Road on Saturday doesn’t mean we’re going to finish bottom four.
Still, you have to enjoy these moments, because there are plenty of times when people want the manager’s head, or lash out at fundamental problems they see within the club. There are too many times, in my opinion, where we take the joy out of football, and there’s little more joy to be had than sticking three past a rival team without a reply. I also think it’s pertinent to mention that it was our biggest margin of victory away at Mansfield ever, coming only a few weeks after our biggest win against Posh ever. Not bad for a ‘nothing’ season.
Remember, always take those little wins, or in this case, the not-so-little ones.
I was actually a little surprised by the team selection. Sam Clucas dropped to the bench, as did Freddie Draper, both who did well on Saturday. I’d imagine that was a fitness thing, James Collins being ready to play. We reverted back to a 3-5-2, which, if we lost, would have been an example of Michael Skubala not knowing his best formation, but when we won, it was a good switch to match up against our opposition. Zack Jeacock kept his place as well, which was a real show of faith after his error on Saturday. Of course, the glass-half-full fans might point to his excellent early save from Charlie Kelman as an example of him doing well, but even my glass wasn’t that full on Saturday.
I might be controversial here, but I don’t think the game was all that good. Mansfield looked half-decent in possession at times, and if they were going to get anything, it was from Lucas Akins, who had Reeco on toast a couple of times down the left. At 36, it’s probably fair to call Akins a veteran, but he had pace to burn and a couple of tricks as well. I’ve always liked him, he was good for Burton (except when he missed the penalty the game before lockdown of course) and he did carry a bit of a threat.
The Stags also looked a little nervous, but that wasn’t because of the crowd. We were loud, there’s no doubt about that, but for home support, I thought they were decent as well. Getting something going at home can be tough, and I’ve been to Field Mill, where it was so quiet I could hear people’s phones vibrate from 34 yards away (the distance between the corner flag and the back stick, typically, on a football field). I’ve been there when we’ve outnumbered them as well, back in the early part of the century, and while I can’t say it was nice to see them getting behind their team, it did ensure the game had a real atmosphere.
Sadly, Sky Sports viewers wouldn’t know, as the game feed apparently showed Millwall and Preston. What a win for live football (and VPNs) everywhere.
The atmosphere certainly ramped up in ten minutes when we took a deserved lead. We talk about our awful defending, but the Stags back line had more holes than a teabag for two corners in succession. Reeco whipped one in for James Collins, who had a free header saved by Pym. The ball was stabbed out for a corner, so Sean Roughan whipped one in from the left and there was Paudie O’Connor in the same place Collins had been moments earlier. He made no mistake, and City led 1-0.
It was, of course, a super start to the game and in our video preview of the game, our Mansfield Town fan said the first goal would be crucial. It really was, because it lifted the away end, and I didn’t hear many groans after for misplaced passes, not many moans if we took a player on and lost the ball. For 90 minutes, being in the crowd at Lincoln City felt like a tribal place to be, a collective, all with the same belief and focus. How often can that be said of late?
What it actually did was create a situation where the Imps didn’t need to create a single chance for the next 39 minutes, including injury time. Actually, that’s a lie, we did have the ball in the net, only for Hackett’s effort to be ruled out as Collins was intefering with play from an offside position. I am told that interfering with play is no longer an offence, but I don’t actually have time to check.
Still, we literally created nothing more, and yet the atmosphere remained positive. We didn’t really need to, as Mansfield just tailed off, but I felt if anyone was likely to get the second, it was them. Odd, isn’t it? In the face of such positivity across social media this morning, I actually felt we lacked any attacking nous in the rest of the first half.
What we did have was a real spirit, stopping the home side from gaining momentum and, when needed, blocking plenty of shots. We defended stoically against a side who did have some attacking intent – they must have done, as we made 24 first-half clearances compared to their eight.
I don’t like to see individual players criticised for their perceived shortcomings. But, by the same token, I don’t much approve of talking them up. “Jovon Makama lashes a decent shot over the bar” … it was a crap shot and the worst of it was that he could have slipped the ball inside to Collins who was open on goal. Collins made his frustration very clear. The ball Makama should have played was the one a good wingers would have supplied. Yet, “Makama had a good game out there, and I wonder if we might have found a new position for him. Is he more of a winger than a centre-forward?”