Lincoln City manager, Michael Appleton said the response to going two down gives him “hope and belief” for the next game. After the Imps were defeated 2-1 at home by bottom half side Fleetwood Town.
Uncharacteristic passing from Lincoln
Michael Appleton said that he didn’t know if his side’s performance “was off of the back of Saturday” and went on to say “there were key players in certain areas of the field where I thought we weren’t good tonight, and it showed.”
The Imps went two goals down, conceding just before half time through a Gerard Garner volley and then a second, through Callum Camps less than ten minutes into the second half.
Appleton said “passing was misplaced from a lot of players” and felt that his side “were too loose, too many players giving simple passes away and probably not being aggressive enough with the passing”.
The Lincoln manager said that the safe, square and backwards passing of his side “drives me crazy and it’s not what I’m about”
Improvement with the introduction of substitutes
Appleton was able to take “lots of positives in the latter stages of the game”
“I think the subs made a difference, they switched the tempo, we were a little bit quicker”.
Second half substitute Callum Morton, scored just ten minutes into his return from an injury. Using his pace to get in behind the visitors and slot the ball past the keeper. The Imps manager said “he’s been desperate to get back”.
Morton was lucky to get his chance to play, with Appleton saying “It was a little bit 50/50 on whether he was going to be able to get in the squad tonight”
“If I was in a different place, I probably would have brought him on after about half an hour” The West Brom loanee clearly impressed his manager, “at least now he looks in a good place, it’s exciting to know that we’ve got him for the last 15 games or so.
Important players out with injuries
Key man, Jorge Grant was wearing a protective boot in the stands during the game. Michael Appleton said, “He’s going for a scan on Thursday, from a swelling point of view, you get the best results when there’s less swelling.”
Grants’ absence adds to an increasing injury list for the Imps. Appleton doesn’t think that any of his injured players will be available for the next two games at least, saying “Liam’s (Bridcutt) still going to be a few weeks away, Joe Walsh longer, five or six weeks. Harry Anderson maybe a couple of weeks, Remy (Howarth) a couple of weeks.”
Returning from the slump
Appleton was confident his side can bounce back, “We’ve had back-to-back defeats I think once this year and come through it pretty well”
“If you want to have any kind of success in a season you have to deal with disappointment and I think we’ve done that well at times this year.”
Looking ahead to Saturday, the Lincoln City boss said, “We’ll come out strong and hopefully we can start the game like we finished the game today.”
