Thriller Killer- Stockport County 3-2 Lincoln City

April 28, 2025 Kyle Fox League One, Lincoln City, Matches, Opinion, Reports, Twitter Reaction 1

Credit Graham Burrell

Yet another game in which City went toe to toe with one of the best sides in League One and showed again that we can compete with the best teams in this division. Unfortunately, we just fell short in the end on Saturday. 

At the end of the day, we find ourselves in the rare and fortunate position of not having to worry too much about the results and can simply enjoy the football and the performances. However, it’s still always better to win and for me, whenever Lincoln City lose it’s frustrating. No matter the circumstances. Alongside that, the coaching staff and players went to Edgeley Park to try and win the match as they have done throughout the past few weeks despite knowing our fate as finishing around mid table.

The team tried to do just that and it created another thrilling game of football. The type of game this Lincoln City side are so often involved in. The result is not always the right one, like it wasn’t  today but this team is learning. The lack of entertainment argument that’s been banded about recently is nonsense. Especially since the switch in formation and style. We have been involved in a lot more entertaining and high scoring games than boring draws or disappointing defeats. This Lincoln side can score goals and do it at will when they’re in the mood. We also have the ability to defend our goal excellently and we have done in games this season. It’s something we need to improve on for next season but as has been mentioned before, the xG table shows we should be in the play off places. We’ve been scoring plenty so that table suggests we are conceding goals we shouldn’t. That means we’re either conceding high quality goals that have a low xG or goals that should be saved or blocked. I know saying xG to some people is the equivalent of saying ‘Bloody Mary’ three times in a mirror. But it is a very good metric to help judge a team’s performance which a lot of professional clubs (including our own) use and rely on.

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It was another chance for us to deliver a sucker punch to a promotion chasing side who before the game were five points off 2nd place. Five points off with two games to play is a big gap to make up, but it was a possibility so they wanted to win the game to keep that dream alive.

The starting line up only produced one surprise in the form of skipper Paudie O’Connor coming back into the side in place of Tom Hamer who didn’t feature at all in the matchday squad for reasons currently unknown. So once again it was a strong side with James Collins being deemed safe to start even though he played 82 minutes against Bolton on Monday. Ethan Erhahon also remained in the starting line up but was now fit enough to complete 90 minutes. Other than that, the team was the same in our now consistent 4-2-3-1 shape.

We started brightly, giving Stockport a couple of early warning signs. Ben House had a chance three minutes in after Adam Jackson sprayed a lovely diagonal pass to Reeco Hackett on the right who in turn cut inside and swung in a cross to Ben House who was already near the byline and could only direct his header to the wrong side of the post. Just as a quick side note, I think Adam Jackson’s ability with the ball is very underrated as I remember Michael Skubala also saying recently. He produced multiple long diagonal passes during this match which were straight to the receiving player and helped us to create different openings. I always go back to his assist to Bailey Cadamarteri against Cambridge earlier this season which was another brilliant cross field pass which allowed Bailey to brilliantly chest it in front of himself before finishing sweetly.

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Less than a minute later we created another opportunity through our ever consistent out of possession work. A typical Ethan Erhahon interception led to him laying the ball off to Hamilton and we then saw a flash of the Ethan Hamilton of old as we have done a lot more since he’s come back in to the team. He drove through the heart of Stockport’s team, beating three players before releasing a snapshot which was straight at Addai. It’s been great to see the resurgence of Hamilton recently and he’s been good since coming back in to the side. Just what he needed after struggling throughout the majority of this season. Hopefully he can be a key player for us come next season and justify the supposed six figure sum we paid for him two years ago.

Around 20 minutes in we produced another dangerous corner kick routine which caused problems for Stockport. Reeco whipped a cross in which missed everyone in the area and went all the way through to Corey Addai in the Stockport net. He was forced to get down fast and make a reaction save to prevent the cross from ending up in his goal which in turn forced a clearance from Pye to prevent further danger. Our set piece record is mentioned a lot and rightly so because it is fantastic and such a weapon for us to try and change a game. 30 set piece goals, six more than the second best team is so impressive. Another tool that will be very useful next season.

Anyway, enough about us for a minute. Interestingly, Stockport had more possession in the first half, produced slightly more xG and had more shots. Kyle Wooton had the first of four shots Stockport would have that hit the woodwork. It was a nicely worked move as they moved the ball from the right to the left which saw LWB Touray skip past Hackett and put a great cross in. Wooton broke away Jackson who was marking him and delicately side-footed his volley which beat Wickens but hit the outside of the post. As we thought he would be before the game, Wooton was a handful throughout and maybe should have grabbed a goal (the stats say he missed two big chances).

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I noticed something about the first goal. The pattern of play we used to score the goal, we also used about ten minutes in to the game. To me, it looked like a move we had practiced to shift their back line and create an opening for a runner on the shoulder of their last defender. Both times, it involved Hackett, House, Darikwa and Collins dropping in to create the space for the runner. The first time after Collins dropped in, both House and Hackett made their moves but the pass wasn’t right and it was cut out. The second time, Collins dropped deep again to lay the pass off to Darikwa who then curled a great pass in behind the Stockport defence for House to run on to who had already made his run through. He brought the ball down, checked his shoulder for an offside flag and finished confidently. You wouldn’t know he hadn’t scored since mid December with the way he finished. That was massive for him, a goal he really needed and may help with contract talks. He does so much for the team out of possession that makes such a difference, he just needs to add more goals and assists to his name.

Later in the half, Wooton directed a header on goal which was caught easily by Wickens. We produced a fast and fluid counter attack which saw us take out the majority of their team with two passes. It slowed down as Stockport got back in shape and ended with Collins’ only shot off the afternoon which was straight at the keeper. Knoyle on the right for County had a shot on goal which was tame and Wickens took it comfortably.

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Then came the second goal, another clever attack that was made by Ben House. A Stockport clearance ended at the feet of O’Connor who had a look up and played a ball out to the left hand side towards House. He then got in front of his defender and produced a really clever flick to put the ball straight in to the path of Erik Ring who had committed to his run in behind the defenders. As good as the flick was, Erik Ring still had a lot to do when he received the ball just inside Stockport’s half. He exploded forward and curved his run from out to in. He charged forwards straight at Addai in the County net, had a look up when he got close and came up with a very smart finish between the wide open legs of the keeper. It was another goal of real quality and

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That leads us in to half time and I felt great at this point. I didn’t for much longer. It all started to go a little bit wrong after this point didn’t it? To start with, Dave Challinor made a triple substitution at half time (as he also did in the reverse fixture at Sincil Bank interestingly). Two of those players are key as they both made big impacts in the second half.

Stockport came out ready and started fast as they looked to mount a comeback and it didn’t take them long to halve the deficit. Three minutes in to the second half, they played some intricate passes in midfield before the ball went Owen Moxon (who could easily have been the midfielder we missed out on in January) who played a great first time pass over the top of our defence for Wooton to latch on to. He then turns to lay if off to Collar and he in turn laid it off to Fevrier who took touch in front of him, and fired a shot towards goal which took an unfortunate deflection off Paudie O’Connor. It left Wickens helpless as the ball rolled past him in to the corner. This really lifted the crowd and their players.

It was really frustrating after doing all that work in the first half to get two goals in front and our lead had been halved within three minutes of the restart. Just a few minutes later it was inches away from becoming 2-2. The first goal really gave Stockport the momentum and they fully used it to their advantage. They were putting us under pressure and we couldn’t keep hold of the ball for any period of time. The chance came started from Moxon spraying a long pass out wide to Fevrier, who was involved in a lot of Stockport’s good play in the second half, and he played it in front of the overlapping Knoyle. He curled a great cross to the back post which Wooton climbed up to meet and headed it back across goal which gave Wickens no chance. Fortunately for us, the ball once hit the post and bounced across the goal line into Wickens’ hands as Wooton hit the woodwork for the second time.

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At this point, Stockport were really growing in momentum and were piling the pressure on. Our resilience and game management was really being tested. Norwood’s quality in the middle of the park started to shine through as he would consistently pick the ball up and play beautiful passes out wide to switch the play quickly and release the dangerous Fevrier on that right hand side. However, we kept them at bay for a brief period in terms of attempts on our goal as they didn’t really have any up until Wooton had another attempt. After some one touch passing he received the ball and turned and shoot quickly which produced a good stretching save from Wickens.

The resulting corner was where we saw Stockport hit the woodwork twice in a row from two different players in a slightly cray moment. The corner was swung in and met well by Hills who’s header hit the crossbar. The ball bounced off the bar and went straight to Moxon who headed towards goal but could also only direct it on to the crossbar.

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The equaliser came just a couple of minutes later and it had been coming. The ball is played in to Norwood who drops deep and plays another excellent cross field pass out to Fevrier for him to run at Roughan. I am always confident in Sean Roughan’s ability one on one as he so rarely gets beat. However this was one of those rare occasions. Fevrier was on form and is a player who can dribble on to either his right or left foot. He first darts down the line, cuts inside, then cuts back outside which gives him the room to deliver the cross straight on to the head of Collar who arrived in the box just on time to meet the cross. Lead gone. Now, the most important thing is don’t lose the game.

Unfortunately we couldn’t do that and it only took three minutes for them to find a winner. Fevrier was again the danger man. He got the ball on the right hand side and fought his way past a couple of Lincoln players, leaving us exposed as Adam Jackson had pushed up and was out of position. Fevrier once again sprinted down the right and cut a ball back across the six yard box where two Stockport players were on there own at the back post waiting for it. Olafoe was the one in the right place to tap the ball home. 3-2.

Even after this, we did what we always do which is have a go. We tried to get back in the game and put some pressure back on them to try and find an equaliser. Our best chance came very late on and fell to Jack Moylan. A Sean Roughan cross was headed back down to the edge of the box by Bayliss for Moylan to latch on to and get a shot away. However, as he was under pressure from a player he didn’t get the cleanest contact but he managed to direct it towards goal and it ricocheted of the post as it had multiple times for Stockport.

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In the end, yes Stockport were the deserved winners. But it is always pretty frustrating to lose when you have a two goal lead. There is still some naivety in this team that needs support but we will get there. However, as Michael Skubala said post match regarding losing the lead; “No, no. They were tired. They were chasing. When it’s 2–1 and then 2–2, that’s momentum. That’s football. You get momentum, tails go up. It’s not through lack of effort or desire; it’s the power they brought onto the pitch. We just couldn’t grab momentum back.” He also had this to say about Stockport which made it harder for us to maintain our levels from the first half and also, the lead we had; “Yeah, they’re a big team. They’re a powerful team. There’s not many teams I look at and think, ‘Oof, they out-power us,’ but today they did. They’ve got some big lads. Generally, we can get into people and out-power them, but today they matched us for power and strength. You could see that from the off.” There are a lot of positives to take from this game, pretty much all of them are from the first half though. We are really not far away, and it’s another game where we’ve given a really good account of ourselves against one of the best sides in this division. The second half was poor and losing a 2-0 lead is always a disappointment and needs looking at, no matter what point you’re at in a season. The tiredness reason the manager gave has weight for sure as it has been not just a busy Easter but also a very physically demanding period due the opposition and the manner of games and how we’ve had to play, the output we’ve put in to them all. It’s not easy.

On to Wrexham for the final game of what has been a good season overall. Make sure you enjoy it and support the team before we’re all bored again in a couple of weeks time when there is no Lincoln City to watch.

Up the Imps!

1 Comment

  1. What has happened to the “Rate the Imps’ chart, for the Stockport game? It keeps showing the previous game v. Bolton.

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