There are plenty of ways to play football, but ultimately there is only one style that really matters to Lincoln City fans: successful football.
I was out last night watching a band at Wroot, and I ended up talking football with a Barnsley supporter. The conversation inevitably drifted towards styles, philosophies and that wonderful phrase, ‘tippy-tappy football’, before he said there was really only one type of football he wanted to watch. Almost in unison, we both said the same thing: successful football. That felt particularly pertinent after watching Lincoln City draw 1-1 with Southampton, because there seems to be a growing perception outside Sincil Bank that what we do is somehow ugly, undesirable or, to use one of the increasingly popular descriptions, anti-football.
There were comments after the Southampton game along the lines of ‘I don’t know how you watch that every week’, which I find utterly baffling. What exactly are we supposed to be watching instead? Endless passes across the back four, possession for the sake of possession and a lovely number in the possession column without actually threatening the opposition goal? We have seen variations of that before, not least during Michael Appleton’s second season, when there could be a lot of technically pleasing football but also spells where possession lacked genuine purpose. There is precious little of that about this Lincoln City side because what we have now is pure chaos, and I mean that entirely as a compliment.
Football should make you get out of your seat. It should put the ball into dangerous areas, create chances and force defenders into situations they do not want to be in. That does not always have to involve a winger dropping his shoulder, beating three players and rolling the ball into the bottom corner after a 25-pass move. Sometimes it is a ball dropping around the six-yard box, a defender desperately trying to clear it, and somebody arriving to stick their head on it. Against Southampton, City had more chances, substantially more expected goals and repeatedly got the ball into dangerous areas, so if that is supposedly something we should be embarrassed about watching every week, then sign me up for the embarrassment.
There was unquestionably a clash of styles at Sincil Bank, and we are going to see plenty more of those throughout the Championship season. Southampton have players who are technically excellent, and they want control, whereas we want to make games uncomfortable, physical and unpredictable. Chris Cohen has already talked about bringing ‘violence’ to games, not in the literal sense, obviously, but in the intensity of our actions and the desire to impose ourselves physically. There will be teams and supporters who hate playing against that, and I suspect that is exactly the point.
None of this is actually alien to Lincoln City fans either. Graham Taylor’s great City side was renowned for getting the ball forward quickly, something he subsequently developed at Watford and ultimately took into international management. Colin Murphy’s teams were different again but built on similar principles, while Steve Thompson was hardly afraid of sticking the ball into areas where opponents had to defend it. Allan Clarke tried something different, and he lasted about as long as Liz Truss did as Prime Minister. Keith Alexander initially tried to play a different way during his first spell but got sacked, and when he returned he had learned the value of stripping football back to its basics and led us to four play-off finishes. Danny and Nicky Cowley had another variation, and although their football attracted criticism from some quarters as well, nobody needs reminding how successful it was.
There is a fairly obvious theme among those names: they are some of Lincoln City’s most successful managers. Different generations, different interpretations and different players, but all understood that being Lincoln City sometimes requires doing something differently to the clubs around you. At some point in the last couple of years, it feels as though the club made a conscious decision that this was going to be our identity again. We stopped trying to emulate everyone else and began assembling a squad capable of imposing itself physically as well as technically, and the current version might be the most wholehearted commitment to that philosophy we have seen for years.
Andrei Coubis rather perfectly embodies everything I bloody love about my Lincoln City right now. He looks like he should be standing silently behind a Bond villain providing the muscle that James Bond has to fight off at the end of the film, rather than charging down the touchline at Sincil Bank, but against Southampton he was absolutely superb. Big, powerful and aggressive, yet also willing to get forward repeatedly from right wing-back, he was comfortably my man of the match. Southampton could not settle against him, and from the opening seconds he was part of a City approach designed to put the visitors under immediate pressure.
That kick-off alone probably deserves its own podcast and article. City went forward instantly, up and down. Coubis was released on the right, his shot was blocked, he recovered it and crossed for Rob Street, whose header was deflected over. The corner then caused another problem, and Coubis was involved again. Within the opening exchanges, Southampton had already been asked to deal with balls into their box, corners, physical contests and the noise coming from the stands. It reminded me of the old idea of getting a ‘reducer’ in early, except this was not some ankle-high challenge. It was simply City announcing that Southampton were not going to be allowed to settle into their afternoon.
That has to be the strategy against clubs of this size. Southampton are a huge football club with resources we cannot match, just as Blackburn, Bolton and plenty of others in this division have financial advantages that Lincoln simply do not possess. If we decide that the way to compete is to play exactly the same football as those teams, only with players who cost less and earn less, then eventually the superior resources should win. We have to find something that is ours, something opponents do not particularly enjoy, and there is no shame whatsoever in acknowledging that.
The Barnsley supporter I spoke to summed it up perfectly when he described Sincil Bank as a horrible place to come. He was complimentary about the ground and the people, but hated watching his team play here because Lincoln make it uncomfortable. That is exactly what we should want. The air-raid siren, the atmosphere, the physical football and the sense that from the first whistle you are going to have to compete for absolutely everything should combine to make this one of those grounds Championship sides do not relish visiting.
The atmosphere against Southampton was exceptional as well. I remember the Portsmouth play-off game a couple of seasons ago, when we were behind and there was this remarkable moment where huge sections of the stadium stood and applauded the team. That came at the end of a season in which City had produced extraordinary results and given everybody something to believe in, so perhaps you could understand the emotion behind it. This was the third home Championship match of a new season; we were 1-0 down with about 10 minutes remaining and had yet to win at Sincil Bank, yet somehow it sounded like Lincoln were the team in front. Honestly, it was spine-tingling, and I know it got to Alan Long. He’s watched more than 1,000 Lincoln City games, and I could tell by his demeanour afterwards that yesterday broke new ground. There was a moment when I looked across at where the 617 would be (my sight-line blocked by the gantry), and I saw lower seven bouncing, and even round into the Stacey West, bouncing. It’s infectious, and rather than stick a camera on it to post, I just watched with the hairs on my neck standing up.
There is clearly a connection developing between this group and the crowd, perhaps because people understand exactly what they are watching. It is wholehearted, aggressive and completely committed. We might be becoming a team other clubs dislike playing against, and I am entirely comfortable with that. There is nothing admirable about breaking the rules, as Southampton did last season, but there should be enormous pride in making opponents miserable simply because you compete harder, put them under pressure and force them to defend situations they would rather avoid.
For all the discussion around style, the numbers from Southampton tell an important story. City finished with 16 shots to Southampton’s 15 and five on target to their three, but the expected goals figures were far more revealing. We generated around 2.37 xG, while Southampton managed approximately 0.70. Remarkably, City had generated around 0.71 from the opportunities created in the first minute, which means the danger we created right at the start of the game was statistically comparable with everything Southampton produced across the entire afternoon.
Only one Southampton chance carried an xG value above 0.10, Larin’s header, which says plenty about how effectively City defended their penalty area. Southampton had shots, but for the most part they were being restricted to low-percentage efforts. By contrast, we got into the positions we wanted to get into repeatedly. Coubis alone accumulated more expected goals than Southampton as a team, and while xG does not put points on the table, it is extremely useful when assessing whether a performance is sustainable or simply fortunate.
That distinction matters because there will inevitably be frustration about missed chances. House had opportunities, Street had opportunities, Coubis might have scored, and Freddie Draper drove wide from distance, while City repeatedly found positions from which somebody could have converted. The easy reaction is to say we lack the quality to finish those chances, but I have heard that argument before. In 2018/19, there were periods when chances were being missed, and Danny Cowley’s argument was that if his strikers continued getting into scoring positions, eventually the goals would come. They did, and Lincoln won League Two.
We went through a similar debate far more recently under Michael Skubala. There were periods when we were creating chances but not converting them, and people naturally questioned whether the personnel were capable of taking advantage. The answer was not to stop creating those opportunities or completely change what we were doing. It was to keep getting there, because eventually finishing begins to move closer towards the quality of the chances you generate. If we continue creating chances and impressive xG against Championship opponents, I am not remotely concerned about a few misses.
The Southampton goal does not particularly trouble me either, not in a conventional way. It pissed me off, because it wasn’t deserved up to that point. It was just another sensational long-range strike, this time from the boot of Welington, and there has been a slightly strange pattern already this season of opponents catching shots absolutely perfectly. There will be analysis suggesting City should have closed him down quicker, but when you watch the goal again, we have bodies where we want them, protecting the central area and preparing to block. Sometimes a player lashes one into the top corner from 30 yards, and you simply have to accept it. Ebou Adams at Portsmouth, Sammie Szmodics for Derby and now Welington have all produced outstanding finishes, but teams are not going to keep scoring those shots against us every single week.
Continued on the next page
Comments Welcome!