It was a game of two halves I thought. It sometimes will be as Hellberg likes them to play at an intensity that is such that it often can only fully manifest for one half more than another. It's about making the more dominant half count (which we couldn't as much last year, due to having players that often couldn'tgit a barn door), being canny with the other half and having the bench to change things and keep the foot on the pedal where possible.
We're obviously not at full strength yet, with McGree (who with Hackney's departure is now our best player) & Jones not yet fit enough to start, Phillips' transfer only just going through, Conway (who's a shoe in on the right where he's class, just please God, not front and centre in front of the goal
) still out injured. The same for Morris who for me is arguably now our lynchpin.
IMHO 4 out 5 of those are in our starting eleven with Jones and Phillips fighting it out for who is alongside Malanda at CB, the other being the first defensive sub.
Even when just McGree came on you could see the difference tbf.
Take nothing away from Lincoln though, they say it's worse to play a newly promoted side at the start of the season and they were clearly fired up after that winning run of theirs, they performed well and started with a pace and press that served them excellently, even if it was the kind they couldn't possibly keep up for much over half an hour.
It's amazing the difference that having an actual goalscorer for us to tie up all the ball movement and rapid turnovers makes. Now if only the hierarchy had took action on that in January we could be having a whole different conversation. Hey ho.
But quite happy with our start to the season nevertheless, especially with the usual curse of first team players missing already apparent, I sometimes wonder if our training pitches are astroturf stretched over concrete?
But from the 4 parachute sides, the Cheats are now 7 points behind, Wolves 2 and at least one if not both of Burnley/Hammers will be 2 points minimum behind today.
Obviously it's a long old season and there will be other sides predicted to be in the mix too, such as a few from Millwall, Norwich, Derby and Brum, plus a surprise team or two that always work their way up there (think Hull last campaign) but as starts go I'm quite pleased so far.
Hopefully get our injured players back without any important fresh injuries, plus another signing or two, possibly loans as we'll have spent over 40M, that usually come late in the window as I'd like another CB and engine room midfielder as cover ideally.
