There has been criticism of the five changes to the side that lost against Birmingham. I find that a strange stick to beat the coaches with. We lost 3-1 on Saturday, had another game only days later and have QPR coming up this weekend. Rotation was always likely. More to the point, some of the incoming players were the very ones people had been asking to see, particularly Oyegoke and Ogbene. We can question how individuals played, certainly, but I struggle with the idea that making changes was inherently wrong when many of us wanted those players involved in the first place.
I’m equally unconvinced by the claim that Chris and Tom are out of their depth. We’ve won away with three at the back at Bolton, Preston and Bristol City, and we’ve seen the different balance a back four can give us, including at Millwall. There are tactical choices to be made depending on the opposition, the available players and the need to be more secure defensively. I think the coaches have generally shown themselves to be astute in those decisions. If anything, my concern is whether a few individuals on the pitch have the technical level to carry out what’s being asked of them consistently in the Championship.
That may become a January conversation. We’re 14 games into the season, and I think there are perhaps one or two players who helped get us here but haven’t quite made the step up. That doesn’t diminish what they achieved last season. It’s the reality of promotion, especially when the standard rises as sharply as it has for us. We don’t need to tear the squad apart, but a bit more quality in certain areas could make an enormous difference. Some of the chances to improve will depend on players getting fit, and some may depend on recruitment.
I’d also ask people to remember the scale of the challenge. Watford might be struggling in the table, and based on this performance I think they might be one of the teams we can finish above, but they’re still Watford. They’ve yo-yoed between the Premier League and the Championship, have players with top-flight experience in England and abroad, and can pay wages we simply cannot match. Their support and stadium are bigger than ours. Even against an underwhelming Watford, this was David versus Goliath, although Goliath spent most of the evening looking rather unsteady on his feet. The problem was David did the same.
That doesn’t mean accepting defeat meekly when it comes around. I’m disappointed precisely because we had an opportunity to get something from a bigger club and didn’t take it. It felt like someone had put dessert in front of us, handed us a spoon and watched us refuse to take a bite. But there’s a difference between holding the team accountable for poor passing, delivery and decision-making, and demanding wholesale change because a promoted side with what I understand to be the division’s smallest budget is having a difficult run. Five defeats in seven isn’t good, and we should say so. It doesn’t mean everything that got us here has suddenly stopped being valid.
I thought it was interesting that Chris and Tom were both in the stands, serving suspensions for accumulated bookings. The staff on the touchline did their jobs, but the head coaches couldn’t influence events as directly as they normally would, and Tom certainly couldn’t get into the fourth official’s ear when the goal was allowed. His anger afterwards contrasted with Chris’s reaction to Birmingham. Against Birmingham, the focus was on our own mistakes, despite spells when we played well; at Watford, the decisive mistake came from outside the team, although our general play was much less convincing. Both things can be true without needing to turn either result into a crisis.
One group I won’t criticise is the travelling support. There were 1,141 Lincoln fans at Vicarage Road on a chilly November night, a long journey at an awkward time of year, and they stuck with the side. Yes, it was a ground many hadn’t visited before, with the history and Graham Taylor connection adding something to the occasion, but it still takes commitment. There was chanting even when we were behind and applause at the end. I heard some boos; such is life, and on the stage there is always some pantomime. Odd behaviour from supporters, but I suppose they pay their money and when you’ve driven three hours to get there, I understand the frustration even if I think it is silly behaviour. It wasn’t a lack of trying that cost us, and that is what would draw my boos.
We head to Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, and I can’t say I’m full of confidence. I think they’re a half-decent side, and on this evidence I’d probably take a point. It would give us something to carry into the international break and a chance to reset before a critical run towards Christmas. We’re in a relegation battle, of course we are, but that was always likely with our resources. I still think there are at least three worse teams in this division, and I think we’re capable of finishing in that lower-middle group rather than occupying a relegation place.
If someone had offered us a position outside the bottom three at the November international break before a ball was kicked, I suspect most of us would have taken it. That doesn’t erase the frustration of tonight, or mean we should be satisfied with every performance, but it should provide some perspective. I don’t think our head coaches are the problem, and I certainly don’t think the answer is to start demanding their departure. There may be difficult decisions ahead over the squad, but Chris and Tom have earned the right to work through them, especially when we’re competing.
Ultimately, the throw-in was a mess, and I believe it cost us a point. You can say I’m blaming it; you can say it wasn’t good enough; you can say whatever you want, but all you eye test brigade reaching for Twitter right now would be quick to tell me goals win games, and over 90 minutes, we didn’t concede a goal that came within the laws of the game; that is fact. Doesn’t matter how messy we were in possession, or how much you don’t like long ball, we conceded an unfair goal.
We can be furious about that without pretending we played well enough to deserve three. Watford offered very little; we offered only slightly more in terms of attacking intent (our xG, by the way, was 1.49 to their 0.83, so actually, chances suggest we should have won the game: one for the mouth frothers to quote and laugh at), and the football deserved a goalless draw. It’s a horrible way to lose, especially when you’re still travelling home at two in the morning, but the season wasn’t won against Burnley, and it hasn’t been lost at Watford. We go again at QPR, hopefully with a lot more quality to go with the unquestionable effort.
Up the Imps.
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