New Look, Same Outcome: Imps 3-0 Notts County

September 3, 2025 Gary EFL Trophy, Lincoln City, Matches, Reports 1

The second half began brightly, for the visitors, and Traore should have bagged on 52 minutes after another nice move. City were undone down the attacking left, but the new signing couldn’t direct a really good effort towards Jeacock.

That said, City never looked backed into a corner. Early on, a sharp throw from Okoronkwo gave Draper the chance to tee up Erik Ring, whose strike flashed just over. The Swede has seemingly been carrying an injury in the opening few matches, but looked much sharper as he completed 90 minutes.

Soon after, the breakthrough came: Ring again involved down the right, playing a cracking ball with the outside of his foot. That found the unmasked (not a typo) Ben House, who was left with the simplest of finishes. The opening 15 minutes had been fairly even, but one move carved open the Magpies, and from then on, they never looked likely to get back into the game.

The second half was perhaps notable for Oscar Thorn dropping deeper after a raft of changes. The youngster had a really composed full debut, looking dangerous in attacking areas, but comfortable as he dropped back into a defensive role. It’s almost ironic that on the other flank we gave a debut to Reach, another player who plays one position, but is comfortable elsewhere. It’s becoming a theme of Skubala’s Imps, and while an EFL Trophy game can often put young players in a better light than usual (Elicha Ahui, anyone?) I suspect with Thorn this was merely a tempting taste of what is to come.

It’s also worth mentioning Fin Barbrook. For him and Reach to drop in and play well is remarkable, given they’ve perhaps trained for two days. Reach has been there and done it, probably has enough in the tank to drop in and do a job, but Barbrook is young, and could easily have seen the game pass him by. It didn’t – he had a solid debut and after a slow start, he grew into the game and could have had a goal to mark the occasion.

While we didn’t make many mistakes, Notts County made a horrible one. Trying to play out from the back, they instead served up a goal for the one man you just don’t hand chances to – James Collins. It was apparently his 200th EFL goal, excluding cups and the SPFL, and I doubt he has ever had one easier. It put him on three for the season, level with Freddie Draper, and the two seem to have a nice battle going for the honour of leading scorer.

After that, it felt like City might go on and get more. Okoronkwo, a new face who has settled like the Vikings did in the ninth century, climbed well to meet another cross but directed his header straight into Griffiths’ gloves. Collins, hungry for 201, almost doubled his tally late on when he met a recycled cross from the impressive Okoronkwo, but his header lacked the power to trouble the County keeper.

Credit Graham Burrell

One thing really annoyed me. I like Conor McGrandles, he’s a top player and as we’ve discussed on here before, he’s hugely underrated. He picked up a crazy booking, barging into the back of one of their lads when the ball was nowhere near. Their lad went down like he’d been shot, and I’ve had harder barges on the Tube, but it’s not the point. What was the point? Ask Conor. The only upside is the bookings in this competition don’t count in the ten count, so it was almost a free hit. A pointless free hit.

Don’t worry if this sounds like one way traffic, it wasn’t. We were tested at the back as well. The one time a Notts shot beat our men, it was blocked by their striker. Tyrese Hall won’t have a clearer sight of the goal this season, but Conor Grant blocked it on the line. Could Jeacock have got across? Yeah, possibly, he’s proven himself a decent shot stopper, but thankfully, we won’t know.

That saw out a routine win, in a stadium that had a bit more atmosphere than usual, but still had the air of a friendly for cash game. That certainly won’t be the case for Saturday’s clash with Wigan, where the deep squad will be given their first League One test. Early signs around the new signings are good, and with the likes of Ben House and Freddie Draper stepping up from last season, things do look bright over the Bank right now.


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