‘Will Two More Wins See Us Promoted?” – Six Lincoln City Questions We Missed On The Podcast

We got so carried away on the number one Lincoln City podcast last night that we missed a whole host of questions put to us by Patreons in our Discord.

With that in mind, I thought I’d pick the best six of the outstanding questions, and answer them here in an article. We’re covering possible promotion, what has contributed to our run, and which players might make Team of the Year.

Percentage wise, how much would you say our winning run has been contributed to refereeing decisions, run of the ball, luck, tactical play and player skill?

First and foremost, I think our winning run has been contributed to by Lincoln City, by training, by being organised, by having a succinct plan for each and every game.

It would be really remiss to look at a 20-game unbeaten run and say we’ve had luck here, luck there, luck everywhere, because you do make your own luck in football. This is the first time Lincoln City have been unbeaten in 20 league games in 140-odd years, so it’s certainly not luck.

On refereeing decisions, I don’t think we’ve come out on the right or wrong side of too many. There have been one or two that we’ve looked at and said maybe a team was hard done by, but there have been one or two where I think we’ve been hard done by as well. I don’t think there’s been anything hugely significant, from the top of my head, where I would say, yeah, they’ve been absolutely robbed there. I certainly don’t think we’ve had an undue amount of decisions go in our favour.

I think we’ve actually had a series of really good referees. Charles Breakspear on Saturday was a really good referee. He handled the game really sensibly.

Run of the ball, again, you make your own luck, don’t you? Is it lucky that the ball drops to one of our players on the edge of the area, or is it actually by design because we’ve delivered the ball and then pinned teams in?

I think you could say we’ve been lucky in some respects. For instance, playing Plymouth when they don’t have Lorent Tolaj, playing Cardiff when they don’t have Yousef Salech. But then that evens itself out over the course of a season, doesn’t it? Because there are teams that get to play us when we don’t have Freddie Draper, or when James Collins was first injured.

So over the season, you may look and say we’ve had a little bit of luck here and a little bit of luck there, but I think we’ve also had luck go against us on occasion as well. There were one or two decisions early doors, the red card against Mansfield for instance, which almost certainly cost us three points. Then there was the last-gasp goal against Wycombe where, but for the grace of God, we’d have won 3-2, not them.

So yes, I think it’s a case of making your own luck, and I think every bit of luck we’ve had this season, we’ve made.

Was our never-give-up attitude the thing that beat Stockport?

I think all good teams have a never-give-up attitude, but that’s belief, isn’t it? That’s confidence. I don’t think any team goes out there with a give-up attitude.

You look at Blackpool, we scored the second against them and they capitulated, but at 2-0 down with however long left, ten minutes left, you’re probably going to.

I just think this Lincoln City team always believe. Remember, we dropped points late in a lot of games. We dropped points late against Blackpool, we dropped points late against Wycombe, we dropped points late against Bolton earlier in the season. So we’re not averse to conceding those late goals and dropping points.

But I think recently, yes, we’ve been mentally tougher. I think all of the players believe in themselves. I think that we always back ourselves to get goals.

I also think that teams panic a little bit against us sometimes. They know what we’re going to do. Dave Challinor said after their goal that he knew, and the Lincoln fans know, what’s going to happen. Sometimes if a team knows that, they can retreat into their shell a little bit and we can then put it on them.

Or, if they don’t know it, they can maybe be a little bit blasé. You know, with the late header dropping into Tendayi, or Brad Hills being rattled off the ball. I think it is a never-give-up attitude, but I also think that’s something all good promoted teams actually have.