Nine years ago, Lincoln City went to Turf Moor as a National League club, five divisions below Burnley, and produced an FA Cup result that still feels slightly ridiculous when you say it out loud.
Sean Raggett’s header took us into the quarter-finals, and the enormous gap between the clubs was central to the narrative. I open with that, because I haven’t really laboured it in the run-up to the Burnley game. Tom Shaw said in his post-match interview that we’re trying to shake the underdog tag, and I think we are, but sometimes, these stories write themselves. On Saturday, we met them again, this time in the Championship, and beat them 4-1 without anybody needing to call it a cup shock. I think that says almost as much about the last nine years as it does about the 90 minutes.
There are no must-win games after 12 Championship fixtures, but this felt like a match in which we needed to put really our stall out. Burnley arrived struggling, with their manager under pressure and supporters clearly unhappy, and we had an opportunity to make a statement about where Lincoln City belong. You can only beat what’s in front of you, and what was in front of us was a former Premier League side with far greater resources. We didn’t merely scrape past them, either. We beat them convincingly in the pouring rain, and deservedly so.
I actually thought the opening stages were a little bit of a non-event, dare I say. We started better, and Andrei Coubiș had the ball in the net after four minutes, only for an offside flag to intervene, but it wasn’t particularly free-flowing from either side. The weather was awful, with the wind behind us in the first half, and we were guilty of a few unforced errors. Largie Ramazani looked dangerous in spells, and there were occasional glimpses of the quality in their squad, but their confidence looked fragile.
That was tested when Borja came off injured, and the first shouts of ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’ rang out. They might have been directed at him, but it worked out well, as their sub Andréas Hountondji wasn’t quite as bad as the rest of the side.
Ben House and Dom Jefferies were excellent from the outset, while Mikkel Ladefoged took a little longer to find his way into the game. We had shots and half-chances without creating anything especially clear-cut, and I had the feeling that the opening goal would be crucial. Burnley got it, which tells you everything about how unreliable my feelings can be. Hountondji finished at the back post from a tremendous corner, largely against the run of play, and suddenly we had a significant test on our hands.
Chris and Tom will want answers about how that ball travelled through our area, because we’re generally so good at defending those situations. However, the delivery itself was excellent, and I thought it illustrated something we’ve encountered regularly this season. Even a struggling Championship side can produce a moment of technical quality that hurts you. Burnley weren’t playing particularly well, but one excellent delivery from a corner had given them the lead, and we had to find a response.
I wondered at that point how the unfamiliar-looking 4-4-2 would cope with going behind. Jefferies and Reeco Hackett were out wide, with House and Ladefoged together up front, and I suspect a few people had questioned the selection beforehand. Is Jefferies a winger? Is Hackett (among others) up to this level? Is Ladefoged ready to start? They’re fair questions, but there’s a trap in assuming that the XI which won League One last season must still be our best XI now, and that playing those men in different positions somehow weakens us automatically.
Last season has gone, and this season presents different problems, opponents and opportunities. We didn’t play 4-4-2 every week on the way to the title, and Jefferies wasn’t a regular starting winger, but neither of those things means the approach was wrong against Burnley. The second half answered those doubts.
What did remain from last season was the character to respond when things went wrong. Think about Huddersfield, Burton and Doncaster, and how often we conceded before going straight back up the other end and scoring. This season has sometimes felt different, particularly against Sheffield United and Bournemouth, when falling behind seemed to make an already difficult afternoon worse. That’s why House’s equaliser in first-half stoppage time was so important, particularly against opponents who appeared to be playing with such fragile confidence.
People can argue about whether Coubiș took a foul throw, or why Burnley allowed the ball to bounce across their penalty area without anybody touching it. We’ve seen almost identical City goals from long throws already this season, and House was alive at the back post to make sure we had another. That’s three goals for him this season, an excellent return for a player whose value is often measured in tackles, pressing and selfless running. More importantly, it meant we went into half-time level instead of trailing, and I suspect that completely changed the mood in both dressing rooms.
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