Ask any Peterborough fan, and they’ll tell you this is just another game for them.
Ask any Lincoln fan, and this is a long-standing rivalry in which bragging rights always seem to go to the team that seemingly doesn’t care about us. We hadn’t won at London Road since 2006, and while we were fresh from the 5-1 mauling we handed out in January, it still felt like a big ask today.
Sure, Posh are in the bottom four, but they’re on the back of two wins, and had one of the hardest starts of anyone in the division. JJ Morgan has added weight to their attack, and this felt like a bad time to play them, derby or no derby. 1,900 Imps fans made the journey, believing this really is a derby, a grudge match that may be one-sided, but that only means the joy is one-sided when it comes.
At the beginning of the season, I had us down as a potential top-half side, just. We sold off some crown jewels and I described us as being on a precipice, walking a tight line between improvement and treading water. Now, with the first win at Peterborough in almost 20 years, filed with the thumping win against Luton Town, I am beginning to believe I may have undersold us. Imagine that, the Stacey West underselling Lincoln City’s fortunes. Some people who accuse me of being a rose-tinted, club-centric mouthpiece, a club stooge by proxy, will be turning on their barstools this evening.
Back in January, I claimed that the Posh team were the worst I’d ever seen. This Posh team aren’t quite that bad, but they are an example of what happens when you sell quality, and don’t recruit at the same level. I listen to Darragh MacAnthony on the Hard Truth, and he has talked up his recruitment, but the fact Rob Street started for us underlines he missed out on targets. They’re bearing the fruit of that, although I think they’ll have enough to stay up.
Street wasn’t the only player keeping his place: Michael Skubala stuck with the same starting XI that beat Luton Town, showing five changes from the side that faced Chelsea in midweek. This was Skubala’s 100th game in charge, a moment we’ll be celebrating with a couple of articles later on, but a win percentage of 44% leaves him currently poised as the fourth most successful Imps manager ever, in terms of winning games. Of course, that can change, but not a bad place to be after a century of games in the dugout.
One aspect of Skubala’s side that has been evident this season, is the quick start, and in our lilac kit, we got at Posh nice and early with Tom Bayliss forcing Alex Bass into an early save. The game was not 15 minutes old when we took the lead, another early first half goal, another facet of Skubala 25/26. Street was fouled, and a couple of players lined up behind the ball. Usually, one runs, steps back to unsettle the line, and another strikes. Maybe Posh were expecting Adam Reach to step back, but instead he curled a stupendous free kick beyond Bass to give us a 1-0 lead.
I felt we did well after that, controlling tempo without any serious chances. We’re all about energy and hard work, a team of good, honest professionals willing to run harder than the opposition. I’m not sure any pair typify that more than Ben House and Conor McGrandles. I’d love to see their running stats, and what is remarkable is many, including us at times, had the pair down the pecking order. The way we play isn’t all about flair and skill, it’s about hard work, doing the basics right and sticking to a plan. Are there two pros as honest as those in our squad?
Well, yeah, actually, I feel like almost every one might be. Tendayi keeps getting overlooked by me for Man of the Match, but his work rate is outrageous. At the back we put bodies on the line and while we wait for our chances, I felt we controlled the game up to around 25 minutes. Then, as you’d expect, Peterborough responded. JJ Morgan came closest, crashing a shot off the inside of the post, just as Lewis Montsma did against Chelsea. That was a rare moment where they got it, but it wasn’t one they capitalised on.
City’s press and organisation limited the hosts to half chances, with that hard work evident as the half drew to a close. It’s mad, because this season, it’s been hard to look at a single performance and say ‘xxx was the best player’. Even the likes of James Collins, struggling to see a lot of the ball, and Freddie Draper, turned in good, solid first half performances. I keep saying ‘honest’ and ‘hard working’ but that’s what we are. We have good footballers, don’t get me wrong, but I feel we’re greater than the sum of our parts.
If anything, there is a tiny bit of the Keith spirit in this side. More tactically astute, very well drilled and focused, but ultimately pulling results out of the bag against sides that, pound for pound, might be classed as having ‘better’ squads. I’ve never bought into that: transfer hyperbole around how good a club’s business is. It’s only as good as the manager and the players make it, and when you pluck a free agent from the PFA squad with just three days of the window to go, and three weeks later he looks like he’s played for you for years, you know something is right.
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