There were plenty of positives for Lincoln City fans to take from last night’s game against Blackburn Rovers, even if three points weren’t one of them.
The Imps certainly deserved a victory in their encounter with Rovers, having had more than twice as many shots as the visitors and creating almost four times the xG.
Sadly, City didn’t capitalise on that, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. One man who didn’t get a chance was new signing Mikkel Ladefoged, who came on for the final ten minutes to a huge ovation.
His transfer has been one of the sagas of the summer, an ongoing battle with his Swedish employer, and a protracted arrival including an apparent strike and a club digging in their heels. His introduction was treated a little bit like a goal, and it wasn’t lost on head coach Chris Cohen.
“(It’s a) long time since I remember that amount of excitement at someone coming on the football pitch,” he told me in his post-match press conference.
“I thought he had a couple of real glimpses of what he’s going to be able to do for us. He didn’t have that big chance that we were hoping he was going to be able to get, especially when a team’s defending quite low. But I thought we saw really nice moments.”
It is unusual for City to introduce a new signing so quickly, not least because he has barely trained with us, but it certainly gave fans something else to remember. He almost helped set up Olafe after a Coubis long throw, and gave fans an insight into what to expect.
That said, Chris stressed that along with Tom Shaw, they’ll be looking to manage the big striker’s development at Sincil Bank.
“It’s really important that me and Tom manage that situation because he’s come from a new country, from a different league, and it’s going to take time.
“But yeah, it was a really exciting start. I thought all the subs had a good impact on the game.”
It’s now a quick turnaround for a really tough game on Saturday as we welcome Southampton, but at least we can now argue we have the EFL’s tallest player in our ranks to help with our heavy metal football violence, the new Lincoln City way.
Comments Welcome!