|
Many player ratings and comments now on line
Lincoln 2 Swansea City 1
Match Report by Peter and Bethan Charles
With the Dambusters tune blasting out over the annoying Sincil Bank tannoy 5 minutes before kick off,the 120 or so visiting Swans fans knew full well what to expect from this one. Lincoln have been playing the high ball hoiked over the back four tactic for as long as I can remember...which is unfortunately much longer than several of our inexperienced back four have been alive! Stuart Jones on the right and Fieldwick on the left typified the youthful look of our defensive quartet. O'Leary and Rees made up the other two, and for the first twenty minutes they had little answer to the Lincoln aerial bombardment. Slow to turn and hesitant in the tackle, they could have conceded four within the first 20 minutes.
In the opening seconds a tentative Stuart Jones back pass almost let in a Lincoln attacker on goal, only for Freestone to foil him by narrowing the angle. Several other chances followed, all of which were blasted high an wide by a fairly inept Lincoln front line, who were bouyed up only by the enterprise of the artillery-like delivery of high balls from begind them. The only efforts on target during this spell came from two Kevin Ellison free kicks, both of which were saved comfortably by Freestone. The home side came closest on 20 minutes when a corner led to a sceramble in the box, and a series of shots blocked at point blank range - some good commitment shown here from our beleagured defence. And the Imps really should have taken the lead on 24 minutes when a routine clearance cought our back four asleep, and only a late saving tackle from O'Leary prevented green from a clear strike on goal.
In truth though, it would be harsh to blame our defence for this period of constant retreat. Our midfield four of Maylett (right), Martinez, Maxwell and Coates (left) found it very hard to get a grip on proceedings, or even to get a meaningful challenge in, and this enabled Lincoln to pump the ball forward at will. During this opening 25 minutes, our only response was one wayward effort by Connor (partnered up front by Trundle).
From the half hour though, the Swans managed to play their way back into the game. The defence stiffened as they wised up to the Lincoln tactics, and in particular Matthew Rees began to show some real solidity, winning almost every first challenge that came his way. The Lincoln threat began to die off, and we began to gain more territory. Remarkably, this was rewarded with an unlikely goal After some good work by Trundle, we won a free kick which Martinez swung to the far post. After some bobbling, the ball fell to Rees, who lashed the ball into the roof of the net. At this point, we had gained some control over the proceedings and it was clear that the points were there to be won if we could get the ball down and play.
We continued the second half in that vein. For the first ten minutes we passed the ball well, and the Lincoln threat seemed to have dissipated. Maxwell and Martinez by this stage had a foot-hold, and Maylett in particular was probing effectively donw the flanks with some useful supply coming to him from Martinez and Jones. However, on 56 minutes we contrived to lose possession cheaply in midfield, and from the ensuing break, Lincoln broke through and scored - ironically their only move to feet in the whole game. A minute later their lead could have been doubled as a Lincoln player headed the ball out of Roger's hands as he prepared to take a drop-kick, and slotted the ball home. Rog only had one hand on the ball at the time - personally I would have given the goal.
This actually prompted us into our best spell of the game, and just once or twice we saw the faintest glimmer of the excellent footballing team that wore our shirts in the Autumn. A great piece of work on the right by Maylett on 63 minutes resulted in a low cross to Trundle, who lashed a fierce shot on goal, which was well saved. From a subsequent corner, Connor met the ball on the full and volleyed wide when he should have done better. Another excellent move between Coates and Martinez resulted in the ball being slipped to Trundle, who took too long to control before shooting wide.
But then Lincoln wound up for the final assault, although their chances were again gifted to them by weak midfield play. First Maxwell lost the ball cheaply, which resulted in a Lincoln player drawing an excellent save from Freestone. Then on 80 minutes we conceded a soft winner. After a poor clearance, the ball was chipped over our advancing defence, and Substitute Yeo occupied the space that O'Leary had vacated and comfortably headed over Freestone. O'Leary berated everyone apart from himself.
A minute later we had an excellent chance to equalise when Connor burst through, and chose to cross insted of shoot; the chance went begging. A couple of late substitutions (Corbisiero for Maxwell and Rewbury for Jones) were never going to make any difference and the points were surrendered. At the end. the team came over to applaud the fans, who gave them a good reception. It was a good all round effort after a ropey start, and a point would have been fair reward.
Plater ratings:
Freestone - 8 Excellent under the high ball, and came out of his goal brilliantly on several occasions.
Jones - 6 Struggled badly for fitness late on.
Fieldwick - 6 Not bad in defence, but added little to the attack
Rees - 8 Headed everything and showed some real desire (after a ropey start in common with all our defence)
O'Leary - 6 Some good blocks, but his positional sense and ability to turn are poor. Also, often failed to win the first ball in the air.
Maylett - 7 Our most potent attacker on the day; tired late on and we would have benefitted from fresh legs with Stu Roberts on the bench.
Maxwell -6 Drifted in and out. Some good moments, but needs to impose himself on games.
Martinez - 6 Hardly a captain's performance - some good touches and tried hard, but failed to inspire.
Coates - 5 Didn't really contribute a great deal in the midfield battle or in support of the defence.
Connor - 6 Battled hard against tough opposition, but never really got in the game.
Trundle - 6 Often found himself out of position on the left as he struggled to make space (double marked of course). Still managed a couple of decent efforts on goal, but seems well out of sorts.
Corbiserio - Little impact in his 10 minutes
Rewbury - not sure he touched the ball.
Difficult to know what to take from this performance. We are a shadow of the team we were six months ago, and it looked a performance of team desperately struggling for form. But there was some fight about it, and ultimately we deserved a point against a team which is flying high (though God knows how - Lincoln are pretty awful!). Key players were missing (Tate, Iriekpen, Britton and Robinson), but would all of these make that big a difference? Who knows - hopefully Kenny Jackett has some idea. Interestingly, KJ didn't seem very animated during the game, and he seemed reluctant to change the formation or to make any early substitutions to try to win the game....Hmmm! Anyway, let's drink of the cup half full - this was a vast improvement on Rhyl, and Matt Rees looks a very useful addition to the squad. Bring on the North Humbersiders!
Swansea: Freestone, Stuart Jones, O'Leary, Rees, Fieldwick, Maylett, Martinez, Maxwell, Coates, Trundle, Connor. Subs: Murphy, Roberts, Corbisierso, Pritchard, Rewbury.
Referee: H Webb (S Yorkshire)
Lincoln 2 Swansea City 1
Match Report by Philip Smith
Since 1979, on an occasionally regular basis, I have been to Lincoln to see the Swans play. We have friends there and John used to be the Lincoln secretary in 1979. Under Toshack we lost that one in 1979,2-1 despite being the much better side (on paper anyway). My problem is that, over the years, I have seen us always lose at Lincoln whatever the merits of the teams and however well we had been playing.
Therefore, I went to the match again yesterday, with much trepidation. Once again justified!
At RAF Sincil Bank, Lincoln played their one-dimensional game which makes the Bristol Rovers team under Gerry Francis look like Brazil. I counted at least two, one-two passes made with overhead seagulls.
Sadly, despite having some good chances to have won, we once again succumbed to the all too-familiar experience of seeing these teams (or even individual players, e.g. Peter Duffield ) impose themselves on us.
We had a poor start which you would expect with a new manager and changed squad and with Lincoln full of confidence. However, the players worked hard to get into the match with Matthew Rees outstanding. I had just commented to my friend John (now with no connection to Lincoln City) that Rees was having an excellent debut when he went forward for a free-kick and proceeded to score the opening goal! I was sitting in the same stand as the Swans fans but at the Lincoln end - so I had to keep quiet.
We led against the run of play at half-time but proceeded to control a lot of the second-half. We carved out some excellent chances, all wasted although their keeper made some good saves. However, Trundle could and should have had a hat-trick.
Inevitably, Lincoln had about 3 strikes on goal and scored from 2 of them. Both un-deserved on their second-half performance! Once again we lost but there was some encouragement.
By the way, Roger had possession of the ball (even with one hand) and their player deliberately headed the ball out of his hand and played it into the net and vehemently claimed the goal. A thoroughly deserved caution for simulation - trying to fool the referee. The player knew that Roger was still in possession of the ball until he deliberately lets go of it within 6 seconds.
Player ratings:
Roger - 8. Worked hard to nullify the aerial bombardment. Very brave at times.
S.Jones - 7. A promising performance.
O'Leary - 6. Tried hard but resembled a revolving door at times against the Luftwaffe.
Matthew Rees -9. Superb debut.
Flitwick - 7. Looked quite composed on the ball.
Martinez - 7. Drifted in and out of the game at times, but as Lincoln by-passed the midfield, must have wondered where the ball was at times.
Coates - 4. Surely he can't fool another manager!
Maxwell - 6. Good at times - not an Andy Robinson, though.
Maylett - 8. Played as well as he did at the start of the season.
Trundle - 5. If only he was playing like he did in the early season. Embarassingly mocked by the Lincoln fans.
Connor - 5. Winner of the Trundle look-alike competition and carried on with the likeness in his performance.
Referee:
H.Webb - 6. Almost seemed to condone the physical approach of Lincoln. Futcher, already with a big height advantage, was regularly allowed to hold players down when he went for a header.
Would you like your match report printed here? Email it to the site straight after the match.
Click here to return to the main page.
|
