Saturday’s victory over Lincoln will be lost in the blurred memory of comfortable, low margin wins this season, but nevertheless it was crucial to bounce back.
The 1-0 win played out remarkably similar to a large number of Blues games in League One this season. Domination of the ball for most of the game, limited opportunities for opposition, and a few missed chances that could’ve made for a significant scoreline.
Blues needed to bounce back after coming up short against a strong Bolton side on Tuesday, and so 3 points by any method is all that would do, and that’s what we got against mid table Lincoln City.
Changes were due following the defeat, and with key players returning from injury, Davies named the following team: Allsop, Bielik, Klarer, Davies, Cochrane, Paik, Iwata, Gardner-Hickman, Dowell, Hansson and Stansfield. Allsop recovered from his knock against Wycombe, Bielik returned to cover right back in Laird’s absence, Willumsson missed out in favour of Gardner-Hickman in an advanced role, and Stansfield made his first start since being stretchered off against Bradford in the EFL trophy.
First half:
With Bielik coming into the side at right back with a very different profile to Ethan Laird, the approach in build-up play was noticeably different. Whereas normally Laird would be essentially playing as a winger and Cochrane on the opposite side would be far more cautious and only get forward when safe to do so, this time Bielik and Cochrane played very similar roles and alternated based on what each other were doing. One would invert and play essentially as a third midfielder, whilst the other would sit wider and support their winger to create chances. Bielik, who’s played a lot of his career in central midfield, I thought looked very comfortable performing this role.
Blues had a strong first half, and could’ve been 2 or 3 goals up by half time. It took 15 minutes to create the first big opportunity, and it started with Bielik playing a switch to Hansson whilst played that inverted role. Paik drifted high and wide left to provide an underlapping run, and Hansson picked him out. The South Korean’s first time cross found Gardner-Hickman at the far post, and his first time side-footed volley with the left foot was well saved by George Wickens.
Just a minute later, Cochrane delivered one of his dangerous crosses which found Gardner-Hickman free again at the far post. This time, Taylor had the space to take a touch, but his resultant volley flew high and wide.
For the rest of the half, Blues plugged away but couldn’t create more big chances until just before half time. Bielik battled in midfield to win a 50/50 with a sliding challenge, Cochrane had to fly in again to gain control and the ball fell to Hansson in space on the left. Looking much more positive than his previous spells in the side, the winger took on his man, took a touch inside and his curled effort from inside the box flew narrowly wide of the far post.
Lincoln spent the half trying to disrupt our flow, taking their time over every throw-in and opting for a long throw at every opportunity. Blues were never troubled when defending these – a welcome improvement following the league visit to Lincoln where we conceded to a long throw in the opening few minutes of the game.
Half time: Blues 0-0 Lincoln
The second half played out the exact same way for the most part. Stansfield forced a good save early doors after taking a good touch in the right hand side of the box, firing low to the keeper’s right. Willumsson and Anderson were introduced from the bench for Bielik and Hansson, with Willumsson taking up the mantle on the right and Gardner-Hickman dropping back to fill in at right back. They combined minutes after coming on, TGH delivered a great cross to the back post to find Anderson, his touch allowed the Lincoln backline to recover but he smartly laid it back to Stansfield, and it took a last ditch Adam Jackson block to deny him.
Hansson had a good game, but Anderson showed his class that we’ve missed in his absence. Keshi does the basics very well and intelligently creates space to dig out a cross or draws in multiple defenders to free up a teammate. He did this throughout the half and we looked more dangerous because of it.
In fact, our goal started with Keshi showing tenacity to win the ball back in the box, knocking the ball past his man and delivering a low cross. The pass evaded Stansfield and the Lincoln defence, but Gardner-Hickman was there to pick up on the far side. His cross was deflected to Iwata, and his second touch would’ve taken him past Sam Clucas had the Lincoln man not taken him out. The referee immediately pointed to the spot. Stansfield picked up the ball straight away and immediately stepped up to face the goalkeeper’s mind games. He looked confident, but as we’ve often done this season, he was shielding the real penalty taker. He passed responsibility to Kieran Dowell. His first penalty for Blues was superb, hit with power into the top right hand corner.
Now looking to come away with nothing, Lincoln finally decided to stop wasting time and have a go at attacking and putting pressure on Blues. They looked far better for it, and perhaps with some nerves after the midweek defeat, we didn’t look as composed as we usually would and made a number of mistakes in possession. A couple of miskicks from Allsop and Cochrane gave Reeco Hackett a chance to steal a point with a one-on-one, but his shot was rushed and well wide of the post.
Barring that chance, Lincoln never really looked to threaten Blues and can’t really complain at losing the game. Blues will want to be putting sides away more comfortably in the closing stages of the season, but it was important to get the 3 points against Lincoln and move onto the next. We’ll have to go yet again on a Tuesday night, this time hosting EFL Trophy quarter final opponents Stevenage. I thought they looked really solid in that cup tie and their counter-attacks were fluid and fast. We’ll have to put on a good showing to get the 3 points, but with confidence restored and key players back, we should be able to take another step towards lifting the League One title.
Keep Right On.
Full time: Blues 1-0 Lincoln (Dowell)