Lincoln City
Reaction to the LUCKY Bournemouth point
Our MOTM
By theimps.tk
February 1 2009
Lincoln City were extremely fortunate to take a point from a game when they were largely poor. I must say that this is the first rant filled reaction I've done in quite some time as I reflect on a bunch of players afraid to lead by example, a manager who didn't deserve a new contract and a lot of the squad getting just 3/10 on the ratings. I'm going to start this reaction by talking about a moment which sums up the mentality of the squad at Lincoln City. Scott Kerr went off and Oakes was told to give the armband to someone else, he offered it around the squad and not one single player looked interested, instead Oakes looking begrudged as he put it on himself. That says to me that not one player on that pitch was prepared to lead by example and try to inspire his team-mates, says it all really doesn't it.
Anyway, I'm not going to blame the referee because we didn't deserve anything from that game at all. Yet again we dominate until we scored and then we just stopped playing, allowing Bournemouth to take the lead. Not once after we scored the first did we look like scoring again, and had it not been for Button then we would have lost that game comfortably.
Neither Horsfield or Elding looked dangerous up front, infact I haven't been impressed with either since they came to the club. They've both scored one and set up one but other than that have remained largely anonymous during the games, especially Elding who hasn't done anything of note since setting up an own goal against Rochdale just over 2 weeks ago.
Then we get on to Rob Burch, now I like Burch, he's a decent bloke and can save close range shots brilliantly, but shoot outside the area and you're near guaranteed to score. He's conceded long range shots this season against Wycombe, Morecambe, Port Vale, Accrington Stanley, Luton Town, Chester City and now Bournemouth. It's a very worrying trend as the opposition quickly seem to be realising that Burch is consistently out of position and not the fastest to get to the areas he's not already covering.
I am desperately trying to think of positives from yesterday but the only one that comes to mind is that we didn't lose, that despite deserving to. That's why we WON'T recover the eight points to the Playoff places. We won't get anywhere if we constantly shut off after we score and we'll face far, far better teams than Bournemouth. Don't be fooled into thinking that the FLUKE, yes it was a fluke, victory over Gillingham in midweek will change our season, just three wins in sixteen shows that we simply aren't good enough.
Then we get onto the recently signed contract of Peter Jackson. How can we justify still offering him a new contract when HIS squad have won just three of their last sixteen games, not playing well in any of those games? People will say that it offers stability and stability offers success, what a load of toss. I'll give you a little stat about Dario Gradi at Crewe....
Years in charge - 24
Promotions - 4
Relegations - 3
Top 10 finishes - 8 (six of which were in a row)
So in other words, Gradi averaged a good season once every three years and a promotion once every six years, but over the 20 years he effectively only took them up one division. That realistically proves that stability doesn't guarantee success. Yes, it's happened with Sir Alex Ferguson, but that is effectively a one-off.
And before anyone says that Gradi brought stability to the club because of the youngsters he brought to the club being sold for big money, if those players were good enough then they would have made it whether Gradi was in charge or not.
John Schofield had a similar run to Jackson's current run at the beginning of last season and he was sacked, so how can they justify offering Jackson a new contract? That is brought into question even more when you consider that Schofield's Lincoln weren't outside of the top 7 after the first week of his first season, yet Jackson's full season has barely seen us in the top 10, often hovering around midtable. Makes you wonder really doesn't it?
THEIMPS.TK RATINGS | ||
PLAYER | RATING | COMMENTS |
1 - Rob Burch | 3 | Sorry Rob, I can't defend you this time, it's becoming a frequent occurance that needs sorting. |
2 - Paul Green | 3 | Is this really the same player who won Player of the Season last year? |
3 - Aaron Brown | 5 | One of the few to come out of yesterday with any credit whatsoever. Decent going forward and not afraid to track back. |
4 - Janos Kovacs | 3 | I can't actually recall him doing anything. |
5 - Lee Beevers | 3 | Gave away two penalties and didn't play at all well, gave the ball away far too often as well. |
6 - Frank Sincilair | 6 | The most consistent member of yesterday's defence. Didn't make a mistake and made one or two vital clearances. |
7 - Stefan Oakes | 6 | Set up both of our late goals and might be worth a start, especially as the current midfield aren't creating anything at all. |
8 - Lee Frecklington | 5 | Despite scoring he is yet again guilty of underperforming in an Imps shirt. |
9 - Geoff Horsfield | 4 | Anonymous before going off. |
10 - Anthony Elding | 3 | Showed his passion by getting angry with the referee, did sweet F/A else. |
11 - Scott Kerr | 4 | Getting sick of saying this, WE PLAY IN RED AND WHITE! |
11 - Dany N'Guessan | 7 | N'Guessan finally hits consistent form and has easily been our best player in recent weeks |
18 - Shane Clarke | 6 | Shane has been our most improved player on last season and although he didn't have long on the pitch, did more than a few of his fellow midfielders. |
23 - Adrian Patulea | 4 | After weeks of shouting for his inclusion, I was disappointed as I can't recall him doing anything at all. |
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01/02/2009 12:40
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Paul Green 3 - what has happened to the player of last season? Little or no attacking intent and continually out of position at the back.
Aaron Brown 5 - Reasonable game.
Janos Kovacs[/b] 4 - poor, along with the rest of majority of the side
Lee Beevers 4 - Slight reprieve by scoring late on, but a rare poor performance
Frank Sincilair 7 - Best game so far, read the game well and made one or two good interceptions
Stefan Oakes 5 - set-up goals but poor otherwise
Lee Frecklington 5 - like Green, what has happenend to one of our prized assets?
Geoff Horsfield 4 - struggled to get involved and rightly taken off
Anthony Elding 3 - Yet another forward that has arrived at the Bank with the reputation to solve our age-old scoring problem, and looks like failing. Poor for the 4th game running
Scott Kerr 5 - poor but no different to the rest. Please stop making him the scapegoat for an ordinary team Dany N'Guessan 7 - MOM, but that doesn't say much. Yet again our only source of attacking ability
Shane Clarke 6 - Not sure he's up to the job, but definitely getting better
Adrian Patulea 3 - has the magic gone? Was it beginners luck? Certainly starting to look that way, because he looked totally out of his depth.
Shame he had to go off, as I was looking forward to celebrating his first goal at SB in the 2nd half!
----------------------------
Before he took over, Crewe were a joke club, never won promotion, always a team we looked forward to playing. That he took such a club to what is now the Championship, and kept them there for a while, was a terrific achievement in itself. He did it by rebuilding the whole club, setting up the much vaunted youth policy, producing a couple of England players and which is still highly regarded in the north west.
Gradi basically developed the academy model which is now used by many clubs, including NW premiership clubs - I think Crewe's ability to scout and attract talented young players has been compromised as a result.
Crewe do now seem destined to return back to the lowest tier, but I'm sure supporters of most league 2 clubs would have wished for the past 20 years or so that Crewe have had.
He overachieved at Crewe for over two decades, look at some of the players he produced: Dean Ashton, David Platt, Danny Murphy, Rob Jones to name just 4. The fact that they are financially sound and often pay relatively large transfer fees and continue to have an excellent academy is proof of the superb job he's done and what a legacy he has left.
Quote:kevin6
Patulea out of his depth?
Don't think so.
Fraid so,he was more interested in fighting the defenders then holding the ball up and gave away to much possesion
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