By theimps.tk
August 19 2009

Our first away win at Bradford was one to be savoured and was an important game as it now brings City into view of a promotion chasing season at Sincil Bank, although the Bantams were doing near enough everything they could to make sure City won the game. I'm going to share something with you, after a two hour drive to Accrington on Saturday (all of which was on my own), I grew frustrated and the three hour drive straight up to Whitby after the game  gave me plenty of time to think about the game and the impending future. Standing in the middle  of Whitby town centre dressed as a pirate (to raise money for the RNLI) also gave me a new outlook that I take myself too seriously and need to loosen up a bit.

Tonight's game was the perfect opportunity for me to sit back and relax at an away game following Bradford contacting me and banning me from creating a video. I was subsequently treated to Lincoln not only scoring their first away goal since the trip to Valley Parade last season, but also to a City away win and I was generally pleased with the result.

For the first ten minutes we were the only team in the game but never really looked like scoring, the occasional shot going well wide or over, then Bradford came into the game a bit and could have easily taken the lead on many occasions, none more so than the "penalty". How the fuck the referee deemed Clarke had handled when it had hit his chest is anyone's guess, talk about a referee who is a crowd pleaser. Luckily Burch was his usual steady self and save his first penalty in Lincoln colours.

I was extremely pleased with the Simon Weaver style defending of everyone throwing themselves at the ball whenever it threatened the goal. We were fortunate though as Bradford, despite apparently being guaranteed promotion because they can flog 11,000 £100something season tickets, couldn't hit a barn door. They were the worst side going forward I've seen in a long time. They lacked anything up front and other than the penalty, Rob Burch had nothing to do really other than claim a cross here and there.

The penalty was realistically a turning point in the game as clearly knocked Bradford. City's attack on the other hand grew as the game went on. Fagan continued to frustrate as he tried to hard to score a spectacular opener before wasting an exactly chance of an open goal. It was little surprise to see him arguing with Howe as to who would take our penalty, both desperate to score their first goal in City's colours, although Howe did seem to ignore direct orders from Jackson who appeared to tell Oakes to get Fagan to take a penalty.

I think that now both have scored that both will grow in confidence and a goal was what Fagan needed just for confidence. I was desperate for him to do well but even I questioned that he would struggle at this level after appearing to be a bit lightweight.

The defence looks reasonably solid, if Janos makes a mistake then Swaibu's there to mop it up and vice-versa, something that you never really felt with Hone in the back four, no disrespect to Hone but I'd be surprised if he started a League game anytime soon because you can't see either Kovacs or Swaibu making many mistakes at all.

In the Accrington Stanley reaction I mentioned that the exclusion of Oakes cost us as he was the only midfielder who could create anything and low and behold, he's back in the side and we win again. A standing ovation when being substituted towards the end shows that he is finally starting to perform on a regular basis. He looks confident, he's constantly helping out both the attack and defence and looks like the player that the hype promised. Obviously it's early days but three good performances from his three games is promising.

I can't really think of many negatives, other than that we did look a bit vulnerable at times with Hughton and Jamie Clarke constantly giving the ball away and there are a lot of teams in this division that are better than Bradford, so we'll have to be careful when we face one of those teams because we can't rely on our defence always being on there day.

I'm not going to get carried away and say we'll win promotion now, let's not forget afterall that Schofield also started with two wins from his first three games in his final season at the club, we subsequently lost the next five games. However, it's a building block and a decent win against Burton on Saturday could actually bring some much needed hope to Sincil Bank.

TheImps Unofficial Ratings.

Rob Burch - Can't fault the guy, saved a penalty, made several decent (although comfortable) saves and generally looks to be one of, if not the, strongest goalkeepers in the division. He is starting to find that consistency that he lacked last season and assuming he can now position himself correctly for a ball that it forty yards out then he'll be sorted. 9/10.

Aaron Brown - Back to his usual good self. Decent distribution, tracking back was excellent. 8/10.

Janos Kovacs - Made one or two mistakes, including playing an attacker in on more than one occasion, but made up for it with many other decent tackles. 7.5/10

Moses Swaibu - Forming an excellent partnership with Kovacs and it won't be long before clubs are sniffing around him. 8/10.

Cian Hughton - Still not convinced by Hughton if I'm honest. Still looks a little nervous on the ball, but passing is improving. 6/10.

Jamie Clarke - Won the penalty but it doesn't take a great player to be fouled. Not even slightly convinced by him so far but at least he wasn't atrocious this time. 5/10.

Stefan Oakes - Brilliant and easily a candidate for Most Improved Player already. As I mentioned in the main bit, it's still early days but he looks like being one of the key players if we are to have a promotion push. 8.5/10

Shane Clarke - I like Shane but I'm struggling to ever give him ratings above 6 because he is average at best. Can't be blamed for the penalty because he simply didn't handball it, but did give away a lot of needless fouls. 5/10.

Scott Kerr - Was a typical Scott Kerr performance really, nothing spectacular. Did his job but was largely anonymous. 5/10.

Rene Howe - Bulldozer upfront but doesn't really look like scoring from open play at the moment. Good penalty and good link up play though. 7/10

Chris Fagan - Delighted that he scored his first goal, but has still missed a lot of decent opportunities by trying too hard to score a spectacular goal. Will no doubt improve over time. 6.5/10

Andy Hutchinson - Chased the ball excellently and was like a little whippet. I don't think he'll score many goals for the club, but will always give his best. 6/10

Lenny John-Lewis - Still a bit dubious really as to whether he is actually any good, needs to work on first touch a lot. 5.5/10.

Lee Bennett - Didn't have enough time to make any sort of impact. 5/10.

Reaction to the Bradford victory

Discussion started by theimps.tk (IP Logged), 19/08/2009 01:12

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19/08/2009 01:12

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sammyimp
19/08/2009 09:35

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