I wasn’t really sure what to feel coming away from Lincoln City and Blackburn. I was sure I was happy, but others in our Stacey West group chat were disappointed.
I suppose you could say City absolutely dropped two points against Blackburn, yet I came away from Sincil Bank feeling more encouraged about this team than I have after almost any other Championship performance so far. A couple of weeks ago, there were still perfectly reasonable questions about whether the League One champions could genuinely impose themselves at this level, particularly while so many of the summer signings were still being integrated. On this evidence, those questions are beginning to disappear, because Blackburn came to Lincoln and, for most of the evening, barely laid a glove on us.
That does not mean the result should be dressed up as anything other than frustrating. City had 17 attempts and managed just one on target, while Blackburn spent the final part of the game with ten men following Tom Atcheson’s dismissal. The opportunity was there to take three points, and by full-time it felt like a game we should have won, but the performance underneath that frustration was excellent. We were aggressive, physical, organised and far more purposeful than the visitors, with the only real failing coming in the final action.
That is a failure, of course. Often the final ball, the last moment, was lacking, and that is frustrating, but the players were frustrated after, as were the coaching staff. A point gained, maybe, but certainly also two points there for the taking that we didn’t grab.
What made it even more interesting was the make-up of the side. For all the talk about ten summer signings and the evolution of the squad, this was still recognisably the team that won League One. Ben House was missing after earning plenty of plaudits for his early Championship performances, Tom Hamer remained sidelined, and Sonny Bradley was unavailable, meaning Callum Elder continued in the back line alongside Deji Elerewe and Ryley Towler. Tom Bayliss came into midfield, while Rob Street was handed a start in attack, and there was still a strong sense that Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw were trusting the players who got us here.
At the moment, Lincoln are still largely playing as the League One version of themselves, only now against Championship opposition. The exciting thing is that the method still appears to work, to a degree. City have now taken four points from Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn without conceding, and while neither game was perfect, both showed that the aggressive, direct and physically demanding approach that carried us to promotion has not suddenly become obsolete.
Chris Cohen used the word “violence” afterwards when describing what City are trying to create, and it was probably the perfect description of the game plan. We do not create in the same way as other sides at this level, we can’t afford the quality that gets you those players. We are not necessarily trying to move the ball through 15 passes before sliding somebody into the penalty area. A lot of our threat comes from pinning teams in, forcing them to clear badly, winning long throws, corners and free-kicks, and then turning the box into an uncomfortable place where second balls and ricochets can decide the game. We get labelled as Tony Pulis’s Stoke as if that’s a bad thing.
That approach worked repeatedly against Blackburn, particularly in the first half. Freddie Draper caused problems with his physicality and had one of City’s better openings when he met a bouncing ball on the half-volley, only to send it into the turf and wide. Rob Street also worked extremely hard, occupying defenders, competing for everything and ensuring Blackburn never had an easy route out from the back.
The difference between League One and the Championship is that defenders at this level will generally cope with those moments better. They are stronger, calmer and more experienced, which means simply creating pressure is not always enough. That was probably the defining issue tonight, because we created plenty of situations without consistently turning them into genuine chances.
There were too many moments when the final ball was slightly off, the last touch was heavy, or the shot simply failed to test Aynsley Pears. I thought the Blackburn goalkeeper looked susceptible at times, which made it even more frustrating that we did not ask enough questions of him. We had a free-kick driven straight into the wall and a number of promising situations which fizzled out before becoming proper chances, while Blackburn themselves created almost nothing of real substance.
They did have occasional periods on the ball, but I never felt City were being pinned in or forced into desperate defending. There were blocks and routine (for us) interventions, but that is what you expect in a Championship game. Ryoya Morishita showed flashes of quality, and Todd Cantwell obviously has pedigree, yet outside of those moments Blackburn were hugely disappointing. I have seen League One teams trouble Lincoln more than they did, and Bolton certainly created more concern despite losing to us at the weekend.
The red card should have been the moment City really took control, and I have very little sympathy with complaints about Tom Atcheson’s second yellow. The individual foul might not have been the most outrageous challenge of the night, but it was a booking, and he had already been booked. He had continued committing fouls afterwards and once you are on a caution, you cannot keep giving the referee decisions to make and then complain when one finally goes against you.
Atcheson had already been someone I felt could struggle with the physical demands we were going to place upon him, and ultimately that was exactly what happened. He found himself repeatedly involved in fouls and eventually made one challenge too many. Tony Mowbray might view the second booking as soft, but taken in the context of his overall game, I think the dismissal was entirely understandable.
What followed was perhaps the only section of the night where I felt City could have been a little sharper tactically. There seemed to be a short spell immediately after the red card where Blackburn were deciding how they wanted to reorganise and Lincoln were almost waiting to see what shape they would settle into. It created a strange period of stasis when City had the initiative but did not immediately exploit the confusion.
I can understand why that happened, because much of Lincoln’s game plan is built around reacting to what the opposition are doing. When Blackburn suddenly dropped deep and protected the penalty area, the problem changed entirely. Even so, there is an argument that the best moment to attack a team reduced to ten men is before they have had time to regroup, and I wonder whether quicker substitutions might have given us a little more impetus.
Reeco Hackett perhaps could have been replaced slightly earlier, not because he had a particularly poor game, but because the circumstances had changed. Once Blackburn were sitting deep, City needed slightly different qualities, and the fresh legs from the bench eventually did help increase the pressure. Ivan Varfolomeev came on and played well, getting into some promising areas and showing the sort of technical quality that will become increasingly important when teams retreat into a low block.
This match analysis is brought to you by Wingers Lincoln.
Comments Welcome!