Second-half goals from Conor McGrandles and Nottingham Forest loanee Brennan Johnson in addition to Morgan Rogers’ opener saw promotion hopefuls Lincoln City defeat Crewe Alexandra at Sincil Bank yesterday.
Manager David Artell made three changes from Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw at Blackpool as Rio Adebisi replaced Donervon Daniels at right-back, Luke Murphy replaced Antony Evans in midfield while Stephen Walker replaced Mika Mandron up front, who dropped down to the bench where he was also joined by Evans and Travis Johnson who wasn’t involved on Tuesday night. Former Alex midfielder James Jones started for the hosts.
The opening chance of the game came in the 9th minute with Walker shooting wide of the hosts’ goal before Boro loanee Nathan Wood headed a Harry Pickering corner over. The Alex would have the ball in the net in the 16th minute with Tom Lowery’s pass finding Walker in an offside position before the Imps took the lead 5 minutes later. Rogers cut in from the left, played a 1-2 with Johnson before finishing from inside the D with a first-time effort.
The second half started with a right-sided Lincoln cross that was spilled by Dave Richards under little pressure before McGrandles added the Imps’ second 7 minutes after the break with a curling effort into the bottom corner from just inside the area. Charlie Kirk volleyed against the post after a corner had been cleared to him just outside the area with the third goal coming 10 minutes from time as substitute Tom Hopper’s cross-field ball found Johnson in space, who cut inside Pickering and finished low into the bottom corner.
The next games for the Alex see us have 2 home games, against Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday night before Burton Albion make the short journey to South Cheshire next Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
It’s a game where we need to accept that they have been the better team against us in each of the three games that we’ve played each other this season – they reduced us to very little in this game in front of goal, both in terms of shots and supply to the front men.
One positive was that Adebisi played well out of position though it was interesting to see him start over natural right-back Johnson on that side of our defence.
Sincil Bank
League 1
6/03/2021 4:00 pm
Attendance: 0
Referee: John Busby
| Linooln City | Crewe Alexandra | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rogers, McGrandles, Johnson | |||||||
| Palmer | Richards | ||||||
| Poole | Adebisi | ||||||
| Montsma | Wood | ||||||
| Jackson | Beckles | ||||||
| Bramall | Pickering | ||||||
| Jones | Murphy | ||||||
| Edun | Wintle | 72 | |||||
| McGrandles | Lowery | ||||||
| Johnson | 85 | Walker | 57 | ||||
| Morton | 69 | Porter | 57 | ||||
| Rogers | 85 | Kirk | 72 | ||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Long | Jaaskelainen | ||||||
| Hopper | 69 | Powell | 57 | ||||
| Scully | 85 | Mandron | 57 | ||||
| Archibald | 85 | Lancashire | |||||
| Eyoma | Dale | 72 | |||||
| Anderson | Johnson | ||||||
| Roughlan | Evans | 72 | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 10 | Goal attempts | 9 |
| 7 | On Target | 1 |
| 1 | Corners | 5 |
| 15 | Fouls | 8 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 39 | % | 61 |