Michael Skubala believes the Imps were not good enough this afternoon as we slipped out of the FA Cup against Salford City.
Leading through Erik Ring’s wonder goal, City looked to be home and dry by 93 minutes. However, a rash clearance instead of careful ball management conceded possession, and that’s the moment our head coach believes we could have been handled differently.
“I think that moment’s one we can control better,” he told John Helm after the game. “We don’t even need to be in that situation. There are two minutes to go, the ball’s with George, we kick it, and we’re too open. The ball lands, we don’t make first contact, we’re not aggressive enough in that moment, and then we get hurt.
“Like you say, extra-time and penalties can be anything, but I thought we just weren’t good enough all day, John. In reality, I didn’t think we were good enough.”
Not one to shy away from the facts, Michael pointed to two defining elements. Firstly, it was the visitors who started better, which is different to our last four matches.
“I especially don’t think we started the game well enough. We have a way of starting which is front-footed and aggressive, but we were too slow for 20 minutes and didn’t get into the game. Then we got on top of it, scored, and looked like we had control.
There was also several changes that affected our shape, including Ben House picking up an injury and both Adam Jackson and Erik Ring only completing an hour due to their lack of recent minutes. It’s notable there was a big shift in the game after those changes.
“In the second half we had to make a couple of enforced changes around 60 minutes to look after players,” Michael added. “I had to get Jacko off because he’s done 60, and that affected the rhythm. But we can do better than that, and the players coming on have to affect the game more.
“We didn’t do enough of that today, so for me, we shouldn’t even have been in that situation.”
Sadly, despite not losing the game over 90 minutes, nor 120, City slipped to a fourth elimination by a lower division club in five seasons.
Michael’s interview feels like it reaches out to key moments, which I shall look back over tomorrow, but there is a definite frustration that we weren’t able to see out the final minute or two, which is exactly what happened against Bolton Wanderers earlier in the campaign.
It means a free weekend at the beginning of December, but our January 10th trip to Exeter could still be in doubt, as the Grecians won their First Round tie 2-0 at FC Halifax Town.
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