Lincoln City Football Club

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome David Flitcroft and his Swindon Town team to Sincil Bank for today’s game. Swindon are a massive club at this level and consequently there will be an expectation and pressure to get promoted out of this division at the first time of trying.

 

Swindon have been on an excellent run winning five of their last six games. They also possess the best away record in the league having already accumulated 10 wins.

 

We also come into today’s game on the back of a really good run where we have only lost once in 14 games. In a league which is ultra competitive we have worked really hard to find this consistency. The challenge going forward is to keep building on these standards. We do this through working relentlessly hard day in, day out.

Our win against Newport County was a very important one. I have a lot of admiration for Newport, they have a lot of humble, hard-working players with a real team dynamic and they have complete clarity regarding their game plan. We were really pleased with the way we started the game we played with an energy, intensity and purpose. 

 

We had lots of success in the early stages of the game in wide areas and we made the most of the overloads we created, this allowed us to deliver some very good crosses into the box. The first goal come from exactly that, Neal Eardley found Matt Green in the channel & he did brilliantly to get to the byline before standing up a cross for Rheady to do what he does best.

 

Off the back of us scoring Newport changed their system and managed to wrestle control of the game. We took too long to adapt to this and lost our way a little towards the back end of the first half. We were able to make some tweaks at half-time and credit to the players for the way they implemented these.

 

The second goal just after half time was really pleasing for us. Greeny and Rheady will get all the credit but the moment doesn't happen unless Alex Woodyard wins a ball he had no right of winning. Sometimes Alex’s work can go unnoticed but it is so important to the outcome of games.

 

Other than one moment we enjoyed good control in the second half. We changed our system to combat theirs. We managed to deal with their set piece threat and enjoy a number of counter attacking moments ourselves. I was really pleased for Ollie when he scored. He is always a real handful and has changed the course of many games this season when he comes on.

 

I am pleased to be writing these notes with the transfer window firmly shut. It has been a crazy busy time for everyone involved. I must take this opportunity to publicly thank Liam Scully and Richard Parnell for all of their support they have given Nicky and myself through this period. We have made major strides both on and off the pitch this season!

 

We are really pleased to come out of the window in a stronger position than we went in. When you lose Sean Raggett right at the beginning of the window believe me this is not easy. We have been able to make our starting eleven significantly better and signed a calibre of player that would not have been available to us this time last year. While being good players, more importantly they are excellent people and this is always a prerequisite for us. 

 

We would have liked to bring in an additional centre forward, however this wasn’t possible. We missed out a number of targets due to either their desire to play at higher level or our location. What I will never do is compromise and sign a player that is not capable of taking us to where we want to go. All this does is get in the way of your ability to bring the right players in during future windows.

 

I would rather have 3 really good forwards rather than 4 average ones. Personally, I would rather focus and enjoy what we do have rather than moan about what we haven’t got. We have assembled a brilliant squad of players and while we might be short in numbers, we are big in heart. 

This is the middle match of a 3 game run. Hopefully the games will get more & more important as we approach the business end of the season. I hope you enjoy watching the new members of our squad. Please make them feel welcome & get behind them in true Sincil Bank style. Your support as always remains vital to us...