Lincoln City
Reaction to the defeat at Rotherham
By Nathan Jackson
August 8 2010
Lincoln continued their Rotherham losing streak, extending it to seven games. It was a game of two halves as City were awful in the first half, but dominated the second and it looked for a long time like only one side was going to win, but the reason we didn't was down to a substitution, or rather the lack there of.
There are ways to define progression in football. The obvious one is to compare where you were the season before at the same point, so strictly speaking we're worse off now than we were at the same point in four of the six three seasons, and equal to the other. The other way is to compare the result against the same opponents as the previous season. By that comparison we are doing better as the result last season was a 2-0 defeat, so at least we scored this year.
I am mixed about how yesterday went. The first half was awful and went someway to proving that Sutton's use of the 4-1-4-1 system is not the one that will get us anywhere. Whenever the ball was played forward to Broughton, he was either muscled out by Geohaghon or flicked the ball onto no-one. That's not anything against Broughton, but not only is he not going to score goals, but there's about as much point of him playing up front on him own as there is wearing a t-shirt saying "Devil Worshipper" in the middle of a church.
Going forward we do look good, but when you're only going to play one up front, especially a striker who doesn't score goals, you're going to struggle. We can't rely on Carayol to get our goals, at the end of the day he is a midfielder and will score around five-ten this season, but it isn't his job to score goals. Jarrett will contribute with a few, but we need someone on the pitch that will score.
Even though it was blatantly obvious to the 500odd Lincoln fans that we needed a second striker on the pitch, Sutton chose until we went 2-1 down to bring McCallum on. He just sat and watched as City controlled but didn't get many shots in on goal, an ideal time to bring on a second striker, but waited until they scored again with three minutes to go before making a change, the words "tactically inept" come to mind.
The defence certainly needs to be sorted out as they're not really giving Anyon much of a chance. Much like the Celtic game, some of them were running around like headless chickens and rather than just clearing it, dawdling on the ball when attackers are running towards them. When you've got strikers such as Le Fondre around, someone who will get somewhere between 20 and 30 goals every season, you can't afford to take your time
However, it certainly wasn't all bad news. The aforementioned Carayol was excellent again. He is the star in this side and it's obvious why considerably bigger sides wanted him, and why Torquay were desperate to keep hold of him. It's been a long time since we had someone who can run at defences and this could be the key in us staying up, because based on the first half yesterday, we certainly won't be challenging at the right end.
Jarrett also had a good game on his debut and much like Carayol, isn't afraid to run at defenders. It's important that we have two attacking wingers as the two central midfielders seem to be carbon-copy of the other. Kerr and O'Keefe are too similar in my opinion and one of them needs to be replaced by Keltie. Out of the three of them, Keltie is the only one who seemingly creates anything, and that is based on five years of Scott Kerr, O'Keefe's mixed pre-season and Keltie's impact towards the end of last season.
I'm not quite panicking yet, we lost 4-0 to Shrewsbury on the opening day in 2007/8 and were fourth two weeks later, not to forget we had six points from our first three games last season and in both seasons we were close to relegation, whereas two years ago we started with a defeat at Rotherham and ended up 13th, something I would gladly take now.
THEIMPS.KA OFFICIAL RATINGS | |
 | Anyon didn't stand a chance with either goal really, but did make some good saves through the game. Kicking was generally good, as was decision making. 7/10. |
 | Moses continues to be a rather unspectacular defender, clearing the ball straight at out play with a no-nonsense attitude. The winning goal was partly his fault as he ran across goal when there was already defenders there, leaving Pearce to deal with four attacking players on his own. 5/10 |
 | Did reasonably well given that it was his first game since the Grimsby game in February. Made a hash of clearing the first goal but otherwise had kept Le Fondre very quiet on the few occasions Rotherham attacked. 7/10 |
 | Has now seemingly replaced Paul Mayo as the one who is always blamed for goals, even when they're not his fault. Someone was saying he should have cleared the ball before Le Fondre's goal, but he was never in a position to just clear it as he was fight with the striker for the ball. Then again, he wasn't exactly brilliant. 4.5/10 |
 | Passing is still very suspect and if City do sign another defender then you'd suspect Green would be the one to be dropped. Didn't do anything costly during the game, but didn't really do anything at all. 4/10 |
 | One of the few shining lights from last season had a quiet game by his standards. Distribution was good but was generally otherwise anonymous. 5/10 |
 | Jarrett has started life well for the Imps and could have scored once or twice with a bit more luck, but overall a reasonable debut for the former Barnet man. 7/10 |
 | Scott Kerr continues his fine tradition of being there without really doing anything. Not much else you can say that hasn't been said in any of the last five years. 4/10 |
 | O'Keefe had a quiet debut for the Imp, although he passing was good. At this early stage, he appears to be a younger version of Kerr. 5/10 |
 | Without a doubt the best player on the pitch for the Imps yesterday and the goal was certainly deserved. his run for what could have been his second goal was brilliant and our hopes could be put on his shoulders this season. 8.5/10 |
 | Broughton is not the striker to use in the 4-5-1 formation. His effort is unquestionable and he did win a lot of headers, but if the ball's lumped up and there's no-one with him, then the headers go to no-one. It's hard to really criticise him because he did what he was there to do. 7/10 |
 | Five years ago he was scoring an own goal at Fulham got destroyed 5-1 at Man Utd, this year he was left hideously exposed in a four-on-one situation because of the wandering Swaibu. Pearce and opening days just don't go together. Didn't really have a lot to do as most of the second half was spent in the Rotherham half. 6/10 |
 | Seems to have returned to his old role as a cameo player. Keltie did well in his 12 minute appearance and even set up two chances, but otherwise didn't really have a chance to make an impact. 6/10 |
 | Brought on about half an hour too late. Didn't have chance to do anything. UNRATEABLE |
 | Sutton got this game wrong tactically. The 4-1-4-1 tactic will not work, especially against a team with the quality of Rotherham. He didn't go for the juggular when Rotherham were there for the taking and even though we were the better side, it was obvious we needed added energy. 3/10 |
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08/08/2010 14:32
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Two years ago there were 2,000 Imps fans there on the opening day, this year 500-odd. What does that say?
Mind you that stadium is awful for watching football, and the dreadful DJ on the PA was an embarrassment, so the missing fans were probably right!
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