Hamer House of Horror: Lincoln City 0-6 West Ham United

Lincoln City were roundly beaten by West Ham at Sincil Bank, undone by two moments of stupidity that left a climb steeper than Everest for the brave nine who stayed on the pitch.

The Imps made a handful of changes to the side that lost 3-0 at Sheffield United, with Daniel Oyegoke, Callum Elder, Ivan Varfolomeev, Tom Hamer and Chio Ogbene coming into the side at the expense of Dom Jefferies, Adam Reach, Ryley Towler, Tom Bayliss and Rob Street. The visitors featured England international Jarrod Bowen, while Tomas Soucek, scorer of the goal that beat us in 2023, was among the subs.

The game was barely three minutes old when Tom Hamer was sent off for a late challenge on Joël Veltman, leaving City facing an uphill battle almost before we had got going. My initial reaction was that a red looked harsh, and there was plenty of anger on the touchline as Veltman remained down. However, a second viewing changed that assessment: it was a red card, however much we might have wanted to argue otherwise.

Chris Cohen made the unusual journey down from the gantry after just eight minutes, with the early dismissal having thrown the evening’s plans into disarray. City nevertheless forced our first corner in the tenth minute, having already dealt with one at the other end. Ours eventually led to a throw, with Callum Elder taking responsibility in Tom’s absence.

West Ham’s first decent opportunity arrived a couple of minutes later, when a neat move put Pablo in behind, but he could not get his effort right and sent it wide. There were still moments for City to enjoy, including a lovely turn from Ivan Varfolomeev which fooled Jarrod Bowen. Unfortunately, the pass that followed went out for a throw, spoiling what had been a smart piece of play.

Andrew Kitchen was already an unpopular figure, and his handling of an incident involving Daniel Oyegoke did little to improve things. Daniel was fouled, but the referee initially allowed play to continue before his assistant flagged and he brought it back. By then, Freddie Draper was through one-on-one, making the belated whistle particularly frustrating, and the resulting free kick came to nothing.

City continued to have a go, with Ivan’s corner in the 20th minute headed out to Conor McGrandles, whose strike was blocked inside the area. The dismissal had certainly galvanised the support, with a superb atmosphere and chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” directed at Kitchen. West Ham should then have taken the lead when a deep corner found Mohamadou Kanté at the back post, but, having risen highest, he headed into the ground and wide when it looked easier to score.

A minute later, an already difficult evening became something altogether worse as McGrandles was also sent off. The incident came from our own attack, with Conor giving the ball away and then fouling Bowen, leaving Kitchen with little choice again. There was anger around the ground, but two dismissals inside 23 minutes had left City with nine men and an enormous amount of football still to play.

Arne Engels sent the resulting free kick over, and City even managed to create an opportunity of our own shortly afterwards. Callum’s long throw was cleared to Ben House, who met it with a volley but could not keep his effort down. It was a rare chance to threaten, with West Ham increasingly able to keep the pressure on, although another corner came to nothing and there was still no breakthrough.

The crowd took whatever encouragement it could from the visitors’ mistakes, cheering when a free kick which had looked soft drifted over everyone and out for a goal kick. Konstantinos Mavropanos then tried his luck from distance, sending his effort over both the goal and the stand. Those cheers quickly turned to jeers when George Wickens blasted the resulting goal kick out for a throw, handing possession straight back to West Ham.

The pressure became more threatening as the half wore on, with Ben blocking a Bowen shot in the 38th minute before Veltman’s follow-up was saved by George. The nine men were doing the club proud, working to keep West Ham out despite the huge disadvantage. A minute later, Manor Solomon had another opportunity from a deep cross, but sliced his attempted volley when the visitors should really have scored.

Ben was involved in another important defensive intervention just before the break, blocking Max Kilman’s effort from the edge of the area behind for a corner. City had resisted for most of the half through a combination of hard work, blocks, a save and some poor West Ham finishing, but the visitors finally found a way through in the 45th minute. Mavropanos met a corner with a header to put the Hammers ahead, a breakthrough which had been coming but was still desperately disappointing after the effort our nine men had put into keeping the game level.