Lincoln City (H), 7.45pm Tuesday 14th February.

[kevinhectoring]

1 hour ago, BramcoteRam84 said:

You took my comment out of context. The point I was making (or trying to make) is we have to get White into the team, he can give us some of what Bird gives us. It doesn’t work with Knight and Hourihane deep, the balance is wrong. If Warne wants to play Collins and McGoldrick the only way he can really do it is by dropping Knight. While he was poor last night personally I don’t think you can drop Knight which means you have to drop Collins or Didzy. 
 

My changes on Saturday would be Sibley for Roberts, White for Collins moving Didzy up top and Knight further forward, and I’d start Dobbin and Barkhuizen resting Mendez-Laing who is looking jaded and isn’t the same player right now.

Ok and yes I think that makes sense. But of Knight and Hourihane I think it’s got to be Hourihane who moves forward. That’s not because Hourihan is better that Knight playing higher - they’re different. But playing deeper, you get twice as much out of Knight as you do out of Hourihane. 

[Rambervalley]

2 hours ago, ramboy63 said:

To be fair to the officials although i thought they were poor again last night they did come up with 9 minutes injury time

That’s true. 
I said at the time that there should be 6-7 minutes added on but wouldn’t be surprised if they only said 4. 
So to see 9 minutes go up did at least confirm that they had recognised the amount of time wasting going on. Although a couple more yellow cards (certainly one for the keeper) should have been shown. 
 

we move on….

[sage]

2 minutes ago, kevinhectoring said:

Ok and yes I think that makes sense. But of Knight and Hourihane I think it’s got to be Hourihane who moves forward. That’s not because Hourihan is better that Knight playing higher - they’re different. But playing deeper, you get twice as much out of Knight as you do out of Hourihane. 

Knight hasn't got the touch to play DCM. He is an 8

Hourihane is also an 8 and plays better in a 3 with Bird or White behind him.

 

[angieram]

11 minutes ago, alfaskye said:

Just seen the highlights, we had enough chances to win the game, both goals offside but McGoldrick wasn't offside when the ball was crossed so goal should have stood. All refereeing mistakes but all very close.

All very close? Theirs was two yards! 

Hourihane marginal but I think offside, Diddy looked onside.

Stills from RamsTV.

 

[MadAmster]

Not a good day at the office. The 2 full backs had off days, so did Cash. The defence miskicked several attempted clearances straight up in the air or directly to an opponent. Cash's raking cross field passes to NML have been getting intercepted for a few games, it's been sussed. Collo didn't do much wrong but never got ball. IMO Didzy is trying to do too much and needs to get back to basics.

For much of the 1st half Lincoln were the better side. Their goal? Offside. I will admit I thought it was onside at first sight. Shodipo was in an offside position when the original shot was taken. However, that doesn't immediately mean he's offside. Had the ball been deliberately played by one of our players and it fell to him, then he's onside. The shot rebounded off Wildsmith, which is a "deliberate save" which makes it offside according to Law 11.  QUOTE  A player in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent who deliberately plays the ball, including by deliberate handball, is not considered to have gained an advantage, unless it was a deliberate save by any opponent.  UNQUOTE   Ergo, Shodipo was offside, absolutely.

Hourihane's goal? IMO offside. Look at the photo... marginal but he seems closer to the 6 yard line than the Lincoln player to the left of him in the photo.

Didzy's "goal". I've not seen a good angle of where he was when the cross was made to be able to pass an opinion.

We miss Bird. The changes will be rung against Charlton. I'd bring Sibs in at LB. MF 3 of Hourihane, Knight and White. Front 3 of Barks, Didzy and Dobbin.

[Blondest Goat]

27 minutes ago, duncanjwitham said:

I'd say it's more than 2 games.  We were ropey against Bolton, absolutely dreadful for 88 minutes against Port Vale, poor against West Ham and pretty poor for the first half against Morecambe too. Even the Cheltenham game before that we were pretty sloppy.  We look way off what we were a month or so ago, and we've started conceding soft goals too.  Hopefully it's just a blip and not burnout from playing so aggressively with a lot of older legs in the team.

You could go through the unbeaten run and pick out games where we weren't great.  Torquay away, Burton away.  You're never going be good all game every game.  

[angieram]

And don't even get me started on that clearance from a Lincoln player without a Derby man within five yards of him that was given as a throw to them.

I can only assume that the linesman thought the direction was so poor that it could only possibly have been a deflection! ??‍♀️

[Crewton]

31 minutes ago, PistoldPete said:

It would have been justice if the Didzy goal had stood . Scoring in the 99th minute.would have served Lincoln right.

From still photos from up in the South Stand, he looks clearly onside. 

[bcnram]

I didn’t think the ref was that bad last night. He was let down by one of his linesman, but if a player goes down feigning injury, there is not a lot he can do. In fact I suspect this referee will be working his way up the leagues. 
Our play was so predictable last night it became boring to watch. Work the ball out to the wing because that is what Lincoln wanted us to do. Then put over a cross that their defence easily coped with… and repeat… and repeat. Lincoln created the better chances their manager did a great job on us. Sadly our manager was fell short again, I hope it isn’t a trend. 

[cj9a408]

Got home at 1.00am due to the standard motorway closures!

First half was the worst i have seen in a while but influenced by Lincolns grit and determination.  Simple passes going astray (NML for their goal a prime example regardless of if the advantage should have been played or not) They deserved their lead. I lost track of how many times a simple defensive header should have been a controlled header to a Derby player yet bypassed every man in white straight to a Lincoln player!  Not good enough.

We simply looked lethargic and it took the Red for us to get going.  The Lincoln LB did a great job all game of nullifying NML all game.

Some of their time wasting was the most comical and frustrating i have seen but we had the chance to overcome that with 9 added minutes and didn't.  They deserved the draw and had a great voice most of game.

All in all a frustrating night and we must learn that teams will come to frustrate and we need to be better.

A word on the officials too who i rarely comment on - the ref lost control of that game being influenced by the crowd and players and theatrics of the opposition.  How the linesmen could get so many decisions wrong were a joke!  A different ref on a different day would have had a different outcome but the standard of the Refs in this league are awful.  Lincoln fans i spoke to agreed too.  

[Crewton]

1 minute ago, bcnram said:

I didn’t think the ref was that bad last night. He was let down by one of his linesman, but if a player goes down feigning injury, there is not a lot he can do. In fact I suspect this referee will be working his way up the leagues. 
Our play was so predictable last night it became boring to watch. Work the ball out to the wing because that is what Lincoln wanted us to do. Then put over a cross that their defence easily coped with… and repeat… and repeat. Lincoln created the better chances their manager did a great job on us. Sadly our manager was fell short again, I hope it isn’t a trend. 

He could have booked the goalkeeper for starters for persistent timewasting, and penalised him for holding onto the ball persistently for twice as long as the laws of the game allow. 

[CBRammette]

31 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

I swear he ran back on to the pitch before the ref waved him on too, only to head away the cross seconds later.

He did even with 4th official putting his arm in front to prevent him

[Tamworthram]

1 hour ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Mendez-Laing gave the ball away less than a second after being fouled.

I’ve watched the replay several times and, in an attempt to try and rationalise what happened, was there really a foul or was it shoulder to shoulder? Maybe the ref didn’t think it was a foul. NML stayed on his feet and was away. I don’t think he was impeded by the foul/challenge.

[cannable]

9 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

Interesting to see so many people saying Cashin had a poor game when WhoScored has him second to Hourihane (who presumably gets a high mark because of his goal?). Was Cash objectively poor, or maybe just not up to his normal high standards?

By these stats, Sibley was comfortably our third best in terms of impacting the match, despite having fewer minutes than anyone else. Collins doesn't come out of it looking great.

A lot of people on here agreeing with the MotM performance given in the ground for Fozzy. 

 

WhoScored overrates Centre-halves who are competitive and busy.

Fozzy won’t gain marks for covering Cashin and shepherding the striker away from goal because he hasn’t registered an action.

In the same instance Cashin won’t lose mark for being two yards out of position and putting Fozzy in that position.

Cash won 13 headers to Fozzy’s five for example.

[Jubbs]

15 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

I swear he ran back on to the pitch before the ref waved him on too, only to head away the cross seconds later.

Yep, along with the physio's being half way on the pitch before they'd even been called on.

[CBRammette]

19 minutes ago, angieram said:

All very close? Theirs was two yards! 

Hourihane marginal but I think offside, Diddy looked onside.

Stills from RamsTV.

 

It all very close except first goal. Who knows what would have happened if it hadnt been given.

[CBRammette]

2 minutes ago, Jubbs said:

Yep, along with the physio's being half way on the pitch before they'd even been called on.

They werent quite so quick to leave it. Problem is all this gets to the players and frustrations settle in and play gets more frantic/disjointed. It shouldnt as they are professionals and should be used to it by now in this league but it does as they are human

[Ram-Alf]

26 minutes ago, angieram said:

All very close? Theirs was two yards! 

Hourihane marginal but I think offside, Diddy looked onside.

Stills from RamsTV.

 

Oh dear, 3 calls and 3 wrong decisions, Linespersons now need to go back to the train stations and hopefully be able to signal to the train driver that all's clear to move, Then again 

 

 

 

[PistoldPete]

22 minutes ago, MadAmster said:

Not a good day at the office. The 2 full backs had off days, so did Cash. The defence miskicked several attempted clearances straight up in the air or directly to an opponent. Cash's raking cross field passes to NML have been getting intercepted for a few games, it's been sussed. Collo didn't do much wrong but never got ball. IMO Didzy is trying to do too much and needs to get back to basics.

For much of the 1st half Lincoln were the better side. Their goal? Offside. I will admit I thought it was onside at first sight. Shodipo was in an offside position when the original shot was taken. However, that doesn't immediately mean he's offside. Had the ball been deliberately played by one of our players and it fell to him, then he's onside. The shot rebounded off Wildsmith, which is a "deliberate save" which makes it offside according to Law 11.  QUOTE  A player in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent who deliberately plays the ball, including by deliberate handball, is not considered to have gained an advantage, unless it was a deliberate save by any opponent.  UNQUOTE   Ergo, Shodipo was offside, absolutely.

Hourihane's goal? IMO offside. Look at the photo... marginal but he seems closer to the 6 yard line than the Lincoln player to the left of him in the photo.

Didzy's "goal". I've not seen a good angle of where he was when the cross was made to be able to pass an opinion.

We miss Bird. The changes will be rung against Charlton. I'd bring Sibs in at LB. MF 3 of Hourihane, Knight and White. Front 3 of Barks, Didzy and Dobbin.

No excuse for the ref not knowing the rules for the Lincoln goal. So it could be all three decisions were wrong they disallowed the goal by Didzy but allowed the two offside goals. As for allowing all the time wasting terrible  as well even if they did allow 9 minutes extra.

[HorsforthRam]

We were awfully predictable; Smith always looking for NML on one side, Roberts for Dobbin on the other and then an attempted cross. No out ball into midfield to create a triangle and move Lincoln about. As another poster said “rinse and repeat”.

After their man got sent off, we still persisted in similar tactics which was frustrating despite having one or two men free in the middle a lot of the time. Trying to quickly to find a “killer” ball which goes out of play ir straight to their keeper, queue break up of play. 
 

Warne constantly talks post match about players making an extra pass, not getting a cross in quick enough, not pulling the trigger, not moving the ball quickly etc. Sometimes it feels to me the way some players try to remedy that is by being frantic in their attempts to pass/cross the ball to each other leading to so many misplaced passes and poor ball control. Composure was missing last night, especially when they were down to 10. For large parts we did exactly what they wanted us to do.