Michael Skubala acknowledged the ‘professional job’ done by Lincoln City during yesterday’s 1-0 win against Port Vale.
A stodgy affair was settled by a moment of quality from Reeco Hackett, and good work from Adam Reach. It wasn’t a turgid display by any means, but it wasn’t one for the neutral, as tough conditions and a resolute but functional opponent played a part.
However, three points in the bag, head coach Michael Skubala was able to look back with a degree of pragmatism.
“I think it was a League One match in difficult circumstances with the weather and the slippiness. In the end, it was a real professional job from the lads.
“Their mentality after we scored was good. We knew they were going to chuck it on us and we’d have to deal with it. I can’t remember a big save that George had to make, so I was really impressed with our defensive discipline.
“You have to win games 1-0 in this league, and in the end, it was a professional job.”
City were the stronger in the first half, creating a couple of chances for Freddie Draper before Reeco gave us the lead. The second period was a challenging watch at times, not helped by the conditions, and even a late flurry of subs couldn’t bring life to the encounter.
Those games are sometimes the toughest, and two of our previous three matches against Vale at the Bank were stodgy, and levelled late in the game after one side had led 1-0. Therefore, holding on to the win was a step forward, as was getting three points against the bottom side.
“I keep saying these three points against Port Vale are no different from getting three points against anybody else,” added Michael. “Sometimes there’s pressure because they’re bottom and people expect you to turn up and win. You don’t just turn up and win these games. You have to perform, defend well, and score goals.
“It was a great goal. I thought the fans today were magnificent, especially towards the end when they were really helping the team. It’s a wet day and hard to come out, but we packed the stadium and made it a tough place for them.”
City now face Huddersfield Town in the EFL Trophy, a chance for revenge in the competition after they became the first team to win an English game by Golden Goal against us in the AWS Shield in 1994. Okay, that’s a tenuous reason for revenge, but you can listen to the story of that game on our current podcast special.
That game is likely to be full of big hitters, with them having Sean Roughan and Joe Taylor as unused subs this weekend, and us not in action next weekend, meaning a few first-team faces could get a run out.
“We’ve got another big game on Tuesday and we’ll need the fans because we want to take that competition seriously,” finished Michael. “We’re looking forward to the next game.
“We love it at home because we’ve talked about making this place a real fortress, and everyone now knows how hard it is to come here, which is great.”
The Imps are next in League One action a week on Tuesday, when Barnsley complete a run of three successive home fixtures in a massive game under the lights.
You must be logged in to post a comment.