Lincoln City head coach Chris Cohen admitted his side were ‘incredibly frustrated’ after the Imps’ 0-0 draw with Blackburn Rovers, despite an impressive display.
City perhaps edged a first period in which chances were at a premium, but bossed much of the second half. Tom Atcheson was sent off for the visitors on 69 minutes, but it didn’t change the outcome of the game, although the 1995 Premier League champions were left hanging on.
Aynsley Pears didn’t really have a save to make for all the Imps threat, and that left Cohen frustrated to only come away with a point.
“I think the players are incredibly frustrated at the end, and not just because they went down to 10 men,” he said after the game.
“I thought prior to that, in the first 65, 70 minutes, I thought we were the better team in terms of the amount of chances we created, lots of set pieces, lots of volume around their goal, just not quite that moment of quality that was needed to take down a really good team.
“Every point in the Championship is really hard to get. But there’s a tiny bit of frustration it wasn’t more than that.”
The first half was tense, with a Todd Cantwell free kick the pick of the moments, but outside of that, neither keeper was overly troubled. Freddie Draper knocked an effort wide of Pears’ goal, but as Cohen admitted, it was 45 minutes in which very little of note happened.
“I don’t think there were loads of chances. There were some moments, again, set pieces, almost moments with the stuff we asked the players to do in possession. I thought we were a lot more solid than the Portsmouth game.
“Probably didn’t have quite as much aggression as the Portsmouth game because we wanted to be a little bit more secure, and that’s the balance me and Tom have to find each week. We want to be as aggressive as possible, but we understand that the quality in the Championship is that if you leave good players with big spaces, they’re able to hurt you.
“I thought we got the balance just about right in terms of defensively today, just didn’t quite have that moment.”
Defensively, the Imps were excellent, with Deji Elerewe once again looking every inch a Championship defender. Ryley Towler played in the middle of a back three, and he too looked as dominant as he did at the weekend, leading to our second clean sheet in four days.
“Today, throughout, I thought we defended incredibly well,” Chris finished.
“I think you’ll see from the statistics that they had one chance in the second half, where George makes his save like we know he will. Apart from that, there was literally nothing in the game for them, even before the sending-off. So we’re really happy with that.”
The Imps now have a quick turnaround and another home game, as Southampton visit the Bank on Saturday. The Saints are still below the Imps in the early table, having drawn last night against Birmingham City.
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