The last time City won away on Boxing Day, I was 24. Next year, I’ll turn 48.
Half of my life has passed between Paul Mayo putting a penalty away at Boston United on Boxing Day 2003, and today’s sweep of the boot by Rob Street. Half a life, and a lot of festive disappointment. Back then, Love Actually was still on at the cinema, Bo Selecta had a song in the top ten at Christmas, and Donald Trump was just a tycoon allegedly signing 50th birthday books. How times change!
What a time it is for the Imps to finally end that run, and register three points away from home the day after Christmas. Today was about much more than that, though. It was about resilience in losing a lead, in weathering a storm and in combating a side way ahead of us in the budget table.
Yeah, I mentioned the budget table, and it doesn’t really need mentioning, because the size of this result can be seen in the league table. Indeed, across the Christmas dinner table, few felt we’d take all three. But that’s what we’ve done, and we’ve done it by boxing clever.
Boxing clever is a term that means to act in a shrewd, careful, or cunning manner to gain an advantage in a difficult situation. Away at Stockport is a difficult situation. Losing a key midfielder at half time is a difficult situation. Conceding a penalty, one that it is hard to argue against, is a difficult situation. You get my drift.
Remember, it is less than a week since we shot down the high-flying Bluebirds at the Bank, but if we were going to top the Hatters, we’d need to be at our best. With that in mind, Michael Skubala named an unchanged starting eleven following the impressive home win before Christmas.
As with many games this season, City started on the front foot, Tom Hamer’s long throw immediately causing problems and Reeco Hackett seeing an early effort blocked inside the first minute. City moved with a swagger, and perhaps Stockport didn’t benefit from being at home. They were tucked up with their families last night, while Imps players were hotel-bound in Manchester.
The hosts weathered that spell and created their first opening after 17 minutes, Kyle Wootton attempting a flicked header from Oliver Norwood’s delivery but failing to guide it on target. Jack Diamond then saw a shot deflect off Adam Reach and roll wide, before Tyler Onyango glanced a header past the post from the resulting corner.
While it ebbed and flowed, City never looked overawed or outsmarted. There is a confidence to our game at the minute, some lovely movement and understanding from a settled side that have found their stride. Sure, Stockport began to grow into the game and forced George Wickens into his first save after 27 minutes, but it felt comfortable.
Also, the Imps responded immediately and ruthlessly. Moylan drove forward and found Street centrally. With defenders tight to him, Street showed great strength to hold off the challenge before slipping a perfectly timed pass into the path of Hackett, who had burst in from the right. Despite being surrounded by Hatters shirts, Hackett kept his composure and drove a low shot towards goal. Hinchliffe got a hand to it, but could not prevent the ball from finding the net.
The goal probably came from nowhere, and capped a decent spell for Stockport, but it wasn’t undeserved. Moylan probably lost the ball more than he created with it throughout the afternoon, but nobody minds that because he wants to create, he wants to run and beat players, and that causes problems. When the players around him are astute and organised, it just works.
City finished the half with confidence flowing, and nobody could have complained at 2-0. Reach won possession and surged down the left, his work leading to a Moylan shot that was blocked, with Conor McGrandles unable to keep the rebound down. Hackett then came within inches of doubling the lead, rattling the crossbar directly from a corner.
There was an issue. Tom Bayliss was caught quite naughtily by Diamond and limped through much of the half. It was also noted the holding at corners was rampant, and I felt McGrandles got away with one in the first half, when a penalty could easily have been awarded. I noted the same a couple of weeks ago (Blackpool, I think), and of course Draper got some rough treatment. One moment, not caught entirely on camera, but certainly visible to those in the ground, saw him grabbed by the throat by Hills as they tussled.
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