There comes a time in a man’s life (or woman’s life) where you realise that something has changed, and you didn’t see it changing.
Well, that’s not tonight, because I can happily say I have seen Michael Skubala’s plan pretty much from day one (okay, maybe it took a few weeks). I always believed in him from the first moment I met him, and over time, that belief has grown, with player additions, coaching additions and small steps, here and there.
There has been no eureka moment. Maybe Stevenage at home was when I realised we might actually be good, but as we stretched our unbeaten run to 15 League One matches, I haven’t just realised things have changed. I might just have realised how much they’ve changed. Why? Because there was a degree of pessimism before the game. There was a moment when I looked at this and thought ‘banana skin’. These are the games we usually slip up on, and yet on a chilly night under the lights, we were ruthless, relentless and acted without mercy on an opponent who felt slain after 15 minutes.
Over time, this Lincoln City team has grown and evolved. We started by being good off the ball, work Tom Shaw started under Mark Kennedy. We started with good players in some positions, the likes of Reeco Hackett, Freddie Draper, Ben House, Conor McGrandles and Jack Moylan, all early faces under Skubala. We worked hard, and we almost secured an unlikely play-off spot. Last season, we started to have a bit more of a go up top, but we got wiser, street-smart.
This season, we’ve put the icing on the cake, a fluidity up top that produces goals and shots that often trouble the opposition. It helped tonight that we faced perhaps one of the poorest opponents we’ve seen in a while (excluding Bradford City). You still need to beat what is in front of you, and we did that.
Michael made some changes, one that surprised me. Tom Bayliss and Ben House coming in wasn’t a huge shock, Ivan Varfolomeev and Rob Street had done nothing wrong, but it felt like an attacking choice. Ryan Oné did surprise me with his start, but only because I felt Reeco has been undroppable. He was on the bench, rested more than dropped, but ahead of kick-off I said I liked the look of Oné. He’s been chased by Liverpool in the past, he must have something.
We started at a good pace, and just never really let up. An early Freddie Draper chance was probably better than it looked at the time, and had we then laboured and struggled, maybe we’d have regretted his shot going straight into the keeper’s arms, but we didn’t. Two minutes later, Draper turned provider, feeding the ball into Oné who only had one thought. He somehow managed to curl the ball away from Fitzsimons, but across the goal for a really sumptuous finish. 1-0 up before Bolton had even kicked off, which must have been a killer as they walked out at Reading.
I thought we then controlled the game against a poor opposition. I’m complimentary of opponents when I can be, and I really rated Northampton in our first encounter, but this version of them looked beaten before they’d had a box entry. It’s interesting they had Jack Vale and Jack Burroughs, two loan players who featured in the early days of Michael Skubala. Burroughs I thought was decent for us, but neither would get in our current 18. On this performance, I’m not sure a single Cobbler would trouble our teamsheet.
There was a half chance for them, but we controlled play for much of the half. It wasn’t action-packed, but at the same time, I didn’t feel nervous. In most matches recently, I haven’t settled, we won by a three-goal margin against Bradford and Plymouth and I was unsure we’d close the game out when we had such an advantage. Against Northampton, I never felt at 1-0 they had a route back in, and in truth, they never looked like finding one.
A word on referee Kirsty Dowle, excellent. We had some bad refs earlier in the season, but since November, we seem to have been blessed with good ones. She let the rough and tumble go, but when a proper foul got committed, she blew. I thought maybe Darikwa’s yellow was harsh, but she clearly had good control because it wasn’t one that set the tone of the game.
At half time, City didn’t just lead 1-0; Reading did too. The swing we’d hoped to see from the weekend’s clash with Burton was happening, and with Bradford holding Stockport, it felt like being a big night for City.
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