Urgh. I’ve slept on it, wondering if maybe I can feel something positive in the warm morning sunshine, but alas, no. That sunshine is hidden (at least up here) behind a thick layer of cloud and fog, which is a great analogy for us yesterday.
That was not Michael Skubala’s Lincoln City. I know the internet will be filled with fear and the same folks telling you we’re short here and there, but the truth is that we’ve been in every game this season until last night. I’m not sure what we can attribute the outcome to. Maybe some players were complacent. Perhaps the turnaround and long journey influenced us more than they should have. Perhaps we were simply having an off day. I believe all three of these are true.
I understand what we intended to do: send Erik Ring up the pitch to harm them, but doing so initially disrupted the side’s balance. Tendayi Darikwa was definitely our Man of the Match on the left, given the majority of our attacking danger came from that way. In the middle, we’re keen to get minutes out of Ethan Hamilton, but he appears to be off the pace right now as well. It simply left us looking unbalanced in the face of an unstoppable opponent.
Let’s not mince words: Crawley is not a good team. Without Kelly, they have little to nothing, and that’s being generous. We made them seem better, gave them a scoreline to be pleased of, and it most likely sent shockwaves across League One. We did it.
I haven’t experienced this feeling in a long time: the dread of going to bed knowing I have to relive a game that many of you won’t bother with. I’ll receive significantly less views on this than I have on most of my recent reports since, like me, many fans don’t want to revisit setbacks. There will be some fresh faces reading this, people who relish in our defeats and want to see how the hell I find positives in the outcome, and believe it or not, I have discovered a few.
When you lose 3-0, it’s tempting to say, ‘It was awful,’ but it wasn’t all bad. While the first half was lackluster and lacked direction, I believed we were doing fine. We were up against a team that prefers possession, but we had more of the ball. We pressed hard and attempted to force them into mistakes. It didn’t work, can’t say it did, and our decision-making wasn’t terrific, but we weren’t ‘rubbish’ by any means. The issue was our execution in critical moments. For example, we had five corners. What did we do with them? I understand that statistics show that corners are not always the threat that supporters say they are, but for us, they are. Dom Jeffries struck the post with one, sparking a good scramble in the area, but the delivery was quite bad.
The same applies to our decision-making. We had a few occasions, such as the Peterborough goal, where we pinned them in their area and began probing across the front of the box, but no player was able to get through. When there was a chance for a cross, we turned away and walked back, and while being patient isn’t a problem, it was annoying given that they weren’t very good in the back. Honestly, if we had scored first last night, we would have won 3-0 over them. That’s how it felt to me—the first goal was critical.
It should have came in the first half, from 12 yards out. There is an undeniable penalty on Ben House for being dragged down on a cross, and if the referee delivers it, we have a chance. It’s very evident, and the Imps were outraged. We can’t blame the defeat on it, but in my opinion, it’s a clear foul. To be fair to Carl Brook, he may have been blind at the time, but there is an assistant referee who must make a decision.
I believed the officials were ineffective in the first half, which divided opinion on our Patreon Discord. There were little hiccups, rather than big penalties. I counted six situations in the Crawley defensive third where two players collided; three were called fouls (all for them), while three were not. Two in particular, a barge on Jeffries and a poke by Hamilton, enraged me, especially since identical fouls the other way went against us. Given our performance and execution last night, it may not have made a difference, but when the chips are down, you go for solace, someone to blame, right?
What convinced me it was a penalty (yes, I’m still thinking about it) were two things. First, as soon as House is hauled over, spectators behind the goal turn to face the assistant referee. That indicates that there was a foul. Then, as the two teams trudged off after an unimpressive first half, Conor McGrandles had a discussion with the referee and received a yellow.
My friend Pete messaged me right away and claimed it was brainless, which I understand. But, if I’m in that situation and we’ve been refused a clear penalty, I might do the same. I saw Conor at training, and he yelled at a coach about offside, so there’s always a desire to win. However, receiving a yellow card at halftime practically ruled out bringing him on, which was frustrating.
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