There were no positives. It’s a disgrace. Shameful. Bodes badly for the season. All responses I have seen regarding the most recent Lincoln City friendly were a 5-1 defeat against Grimsby Town.
All valid opinions. All wrong, in my opinion.
When we lost to Exeter City in October, I woke up feeling that sense of dread at writing things up. That was the last game I was at and saw us lose at any level, so last night really was a bit of a culture shock. Sitting in the press box, surrounded by Grimsby Town fans as they won 5-1 wasn’t a particularly enjoyable experience, but when I woke up this morning, do you know what I felt?
Nothing. A little tired, looking forward to my morning brew, but nothing at all like anger, upset, betrayal or shame. Lincoln City lost a friendly, and when we kick off against Derby County, things will be different.
There are a few points I want to make before I pull out five positives from the game. I know you’ll laugh about this whole ‘five positives’ thing, but genuinely there were things last night which make you go ‘yeah, that worked well’. Once the initial pain of suffering a heavy defeat subsides, the realisation that it means nothing at all should be a blanket of comfort.
Also, this weekend, we beat Mansfield Town 3-0 in a friendly. Nobody saw it, so there are far fewer positives to take away, but you know why nobody saw it? It doesn’t matter. My gut feeling is that if you really asked Chris and Tom, and maybe Liam or Jez, they’d tell you they’d just like pre-season matches to all be behind closed doors, and that the fans and club would be best served turning up on the opening day of the season and seeing the competitive side as their first glimpse.
Without further ado, let’s get stuck into five positive points from last night, shall we?
Josh Honohan
I was delighted to see Josh Honohan out in a Lincoln shirt, putting himself about and looking like quite a unit. I don’t know what I expected in terms of physique from Josh. I’ve watched clips, but in the flesh, a player looks different, and he looked beefy, quite stocky, and he carried himself well. Here is a player we paid a six-figure fee for, who has yet to kick a ball in anger in a proper competition.
This was our first chance to see him in the flesh, our first opportunity to become invested in a big signing and while the actual result didn’t pan out, I think him getting minutes and coming through okay is a huge positive. If he’s clear of injury by the time the season starts, we’ll be delighted.
Grimsby Town
Whaaaaat? I know, right, me picking Grimsby as a positive. Hear me out. We’re 17 days from the start of the Championship season, which, incidentally, is the same gap as our Spain trip and Reading last season, and we’ve just played a side who, for all intents and purposes, were playing at full strength. Their side was probably close to the one that starts their League Two season. They were sharp and competitive, hungry and showing desire. Sure, that was manifested in the result, but what a good test with just under three weeks to go until we actually kick off. That’s a big benefit, and when you consider Bromley was the warm weather game last summer, and there is the same time gap between league seasons, it gives a bit of grounding.
Also, this is going to make me feel sick, but I’ve said it in a live Patreon dog walk this morning, and I’ll say it again: what a nice club Grimsby are. Okay, we have a rivalry, and when there is something on the line, I’m sure it might be different, but they were great with me. I wasn’t on the initial media list, and the ticket office was friendly and helpful. We got shown to the press area, and then the guy running it made me a brew and had a chat. They’re just like you and me, but support a different club. I know the usual banter can resume at some point, but apart from the result, I actually quite enjoyed my trip to Cleethorpes.
3-5-2
We trialled a new formation, and let’s be honest, we didn’t look entirely comfortable in it, but that’s what pre-season is for. Nobody plays a single formation now, do they? If they do, they’re behind the curve. I expect us to play a 4-2-3-1 at times at home, a 3-4-3 maybe quite a bit, but when better than pre-season to look at a different shape?
That’s what we did. You can judge whether it worked or not yourself, but the club will have been looking beyond the individual mistakes and the bits that didn’t work, and assessing what did work. They’ll probably assess that having an attacking midfielder and a winger playing the role of strikers in the second half underlines the need for recruitment, but that is already known. I spoke to Jez about it yesterday; it’s not a revelation, and fans saying ‘that’s obvious’ etc are just repeating the same lines we heard about a left back last season.
Look how that turned out.
Callum Elder
I know I’ve picked two new signings as positive points, but they’re the ones answering questions. All the other players we know. If you thought Jack Moylan had a poor game last night, you know what he can do when it matters; we saw it last season. Same with everyone who has carried over. Therefore, the real interest in these games is to get a look at the new guys, not to judge them as good or bad, but just get an idea of what they are.
I quite liked Elder. He looked to have plenty of energy, and it’s hilarious I still have this image of 30-somethings being past it. I’m 47 now and ran a marathon for the first time, and yet I think a footballer, who has been fit and athletic his whole life, suddenly loses his legs when he hits 30. I suppose it’s a cultural thing, or even a Lincoln City thing, having seen Ian Hamilton, Trevor Hebberd and Kingsley Black in a Lincoln shirt.
It’s not the case though, is it? Today, sports science keeps players going for longer; look at Jordan Henderson, for instance, or Harry Kane, who is 33 and still one of the best strikers in the world. Elder didn’t look like a man on his way down to me, and there is no reason why he should.
Matt Smith
This isn’t about Smith himself, a capable midfielder who didn’t look out of place. In fact, his pass helped set up the opening goal, a lovely crossfield ball to Thorn which ended up being recycled for the goal. No, while the player settled nicely, I doubt he did enough to convince anyone he’s ready to play in the Championship with us, although he now has more time to impress over the coming days.
The positive is the fact he wants to be here. Last summer, as we lost to Grimsby in a friendly, Ethan Erhahon was negotiating with Wigan (and then Bolton). Lincoln City were seen as a lower outfit, a side not competitive enough for the midfielder to continue his journey. This summer, Smith has turned down a Wigan offer, and other offers to try and make it with Lincoln City.
Obviously, it’s Championship football, but it’s not like we’re a Stevenage, a little club who ‘know what they are’. I mean that in the nicest sense; some of their staff used that exact phrase when we visited in April. I think we know what we are now, and it’s not a club that got lucky with a promotion. We’re well run. We’re spending a bit of money, and our ground looks really smart. Our training facilities are on the up; we’ve got highly-rated young coaches and a decent squad.
Why wouldn’t Matt Smith, wanted by several League One clubs, want to play for us?
Conclusion
We didn’t learn an awful lot last night, but Chris and Tom will have done. We watched a game of football, something you always want to win, and came out on the wrong side of it. However, in a league match, that’s different. We close down a little quicker and put slightly riskier tackles in to win the ball. Ryley Towler probably ends up on a booking, and one of their lads could have been sent off for holding Street as he went one-on-one. Sonny Bradley certainly doesn’t make that pass for Gauci, and he smashes the ball into the stands, rather than trying to turn. In a league game, a lot is different, although we won’t get to find out, because we’re not in the same league as Grimsby, are we (I had to get one in).
I’m not going to say we’ll forget losing 5-1 last night; we won’t. I remember losing 5-0 at Boston, and right now, I can’t think of another friendly we played that summer. Big defeats do stay with you, but I don’t think back to losing at Boston with anger. It’s just something that happened that wasn’t nice, but didn’t really matter at all to me, or indeed at all in the grand scheme of things.
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