When the dust settled at Field Mill, there were plenty of talking points. Nigel Clough focused on the referee, but his side might well benefit from listening to Lincoln City boss Michael Skubala’s assessment.
It was an attritional game, scrappy and lacking inventiveness from either side. The pitch played a huge part in that, and while the weather has been atrocious for football pitches everywhere, Mansfield do not help themselves. Already soft, they turned sprinklers on pre-game which, rather than making it slicker, seemed to make it worse. Two dribbled water over around three square feet, causing two big puddles pre-match, only adding to the challenge the players faced.
It is the same for both teams, and we clearly struggled on it at times. Coherent football, one of the pillars of our recent big run, was not possible, and with Freddie Draper out at the moment, it was hard to get the ball to stick to the slighter Rob Street. He did not get any change out of Deji Oshilaja, a big defender at this level, and we struggled to create good chances.
They were the same, hitting a big switch and widening the field might have worked, had the pitch not been so awkward. Players struggled to put decent runs together as the ball bobbled about all over, and ten-yard passes became unpredictable as well. Michael referenced it post-match, and had we lost, it would be classed as sour grapes.
In fairness, a lot of Mansfield fans scoffed at Clough’s comments, instead blaming him and his tactics, but his Mansfield team are decent. They put it on us in the second half, Rhys Oates one player I really like, a late bloomer given much of his football has been played below League One level. Knoyle and Nathan Moriah-Welsh are players I have seen and liked in the past, but the football they want to play just is not possible on their pitch. Mansfield are 16th in the home table, and have lost to us, and have won just two in nine since November, when pitches started getting heavy.
They did not help themselves. As fans were filtering out, one or two noticed a group of kids playing in the goalmouth. Immediately after a League One game, on a terrible pitch, kids were just casually having a kickabout like it was Sunday League. Unreal.
Penalty shouts
The other talking point, before we move on to Lincoln, were the penalty shouts. I did not have a good view of ours, but their manager conceded it was a penalty, so we can safely say it was. Having watched it back on the Imps+ extended highlights, Will Evans can have no complaints, he has gone through the back of Moylan. Street finished, not with aplomb, but with confidence. The keeper was not far from it, but it is the second penalty in as many months that Street has taken when we are level and looking for points.
The second, on Rhys Oates, looked like a penalty in real time. Their staff were adamant it was a penalty, but watching it back, it is not. McGrandles makes a huge tackle, taking the ball cleanly. I can see why those wearing yellow and blue would want one, the player collides with Wickens, but a tackle has been made and the collision is the sort you see all over the field between players where no blame is attributed.
The second is Roberts, and they claim Hamer has fouled him. Having watched it back, it is a theatrical fall, and at the time I thought no penalty. There certainly is not the contact Moylan felt for our penalty, and I think Roberts has taken the ball too far and looks for it. I have seen them given, and I have seen us denied very similar ones. If the player falling is in red and white (or violet) I probably scream for a penalty. Wrongly.
The telling reaction is just after he gets up, Roberts has a wry smile on his face as the referee waves away the penalty. He knows, even if his boss does not.
Lincoln City overall
It was not an easy game to glean a lot from. While the referee did get the three big decisions right, he was a little inconsistent at times, especially with some free kicks, going either way. It was not easy to officiate; the conditions saw to that, and at least he did get the big ones correct.
Throw the pitch in, and you have two teams that could not really play their game. As the away side, you expect that, but the home fans probably deserve a little more correlation between what is happening on the field and the stage that they are asked to perform on. We can switch, we are resilient and can go long, but without Draper, it did feel difficult to get anything to stick, other than the ball on the pitch.
First half, we were better. That is not up for debate. Bradley forced Roberts into what I think was the only save either keeper made, tipping around the post, and Varfolomeev drove wide with another of his speculative shots. Other than that, not a lot happened. Rhys Oates did give us some issues down the attacking left, but nothing that caused undue alarm. On their defensive right, Knoyle and Moriah-Welsh played like strangers. It was bitty, scrappy, and had we not got the penalty, 0-0 would just about have been right, maybe.
Looking at game state, if it stays 0-0 at half-time, do they make their changes, and if they do not, does the second half pan out the same? Who knows, but they did and, in truth, they had the best of the second half without really threatening. We occasionally got some passes together, Street headed over after more great work from Moylan, but it was just flashes of light in a tough, turgid game. It was a bit like looking at a cloudy night sky and every so often the cloud breaks and you see a little glimpse of the stars.
They will argue the penalties, but I will say our team defend the frame of the goal well. Michael has always talked about that, and if you watched Barnsley away last season, you might be excused for questioning how good we have been at it. This season, we are excellent; we get bodies between the goal and shot all the time. When Roberts went down for his penalty shout, there were three players around him. In the first half, when Oates got a cross-cum-shot at goal, Adam Reach was back just ahead of the line to clear.
This is a Lincoln City side built on the foundations of mastering the basics. Before we got slick up top, we defended. Before we started intricate passing and good football, we went long and got strong. Before we became the second-leading scorers in the league, we learned to work hard, run and fight for everything. It did not always get results in the league, but this season it has clicked. This season, we have baked the sponge perfectly, and we have iced it with the technical skills, flamboyant attacking and goals that a good team needs.
Yesterday was not a day for icing, cherries and headlines. It was a day when we got asked about the foundations. The questions posed were not “can you get goals against Northampton” or “can you deal with possession against Bradford”, it was “can you grind out an ugly result by scrapping, working hard and applying the basics”.
The answer was yes.
Individuals
In terms of a write-up, I should end there, but I will not, because a few players deserve a mention. I thought the centre-backs, Hamer and Bradley, were excellent and deserved to be on the winning side. That is not to say the wide players were not, but in a game where the ball was put on you from up high, and where the pitch was unpredictable, centre halves are most at risk of a match-losing mistake.
We saw plenty of mistakes, one by McGrandles almost led to a Mansfield effort, but overall, both him and Varfolomeev were excellent again. The match demanded scrappers, battlers, those willing to get involved, and they both did that. Also, a moment from Varfolomeev impressed me in terms of temperament. He got booked for standing in front of a free kick, their lad smashing it into his legs. Okay, it is a booking, maybe, but 99 times out of 100, the player does not get booked. Five minutes later, Varfolomeev stood behind a free kick, their lad did exactly what he had done earlier and stood in front of the ball. On a booking, if he had smashed it at the player, could he have got a second? He might have got their lad booked, but he did not even try. Another player might have been tempted to do what had been done to him.
I want to shout out Rob Street as well. All the attackers found it difficult, but Street had to fight so hard all game long. He took his penalty well, but it was not just that. It was not a day for strikers, and playing the nine, the role he wanted, he did not get a chance to show what he could do. Big balls were the order of the day, and he had a big player on him like bitumen, and he never stopped.
In the end, it was another three points, a 16th game unbeaten for Michael Skubala, the second time in his Imps tenure that he has overseen a 16-game unbeaten streak. Were he to match the 19-game unbeaten run Danny Cowley oversaw in 2018/19, it would include a trip to Cardiff City, and that might just be enough to convince even me we are serious Championship contenders.
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