The result was worse than the performance. Clearly lacking a goal scorer, but on another day our goal would have been given and that jam doughnut of an own goal doesn’t go in. Thought we looked decent in spells. Looking forward to seeing us play when we have gelled more, and hopefully with some fresh faces up front.

Apart from the game it was a pretty good day out at Lincoln. We got the early train and had time to look around the Cathederal and the castle. Lol at the name of the steep hill up to the Cathederal is called, "Steep Hill", apparently the 4th steepest in Britain. My knees didn't like walking back down. Lots of nice pubs to visit.

There was a great turn out and good atmosphere until the game started and it all turned to shit. We may have won the stats but we were out fought by Lincoln and they took their chances. They would have had a third except for a wonder save from Periera. We played as I expected, tidy on the ball, toothless in attack and a defence prone to going missing.

The offside for our goal looked harsh but looking at the highlights I think the lino got it right. I was never expecting a pen for the push.

The pressure is on for the home game against Huddersfield after their trashing of Orient.

I think it needs time. I'm sure Hunt and the team will keep improving and adapting until it does.

Worth remembering that our defence has barely played together.

That was Stickland and Burns first match playing with each other as far as I can tell. Burns and O'Connor have managed maybe a couple of games total together. Stickland and O'Connor I think less than a game.

I'm not even sure how much Stickers and Abrefa have played together in the last couple of seasons.

Etc.

Teams with lots of changes often start slow.

Hopefully not as extreme but Selles took half a season to get us going two years back - and that was with Wing, Smith and Knibbs coming in

I do agree we shouldn’t change too much and panic or just throw more new players at the team. It needs time. And that includes Noel and the system - but it’s not quite functioning from what I’ve seen - too big gaps between the lines
That was at least partly because of Selles' self destructively narrow and easily stoppable 4-2-2-2.

This is just a case of keeping the defensive line straight and maybe dropping it a bit, imo. A more drastic change may be needed I guess, but early days.

Definitely improved as well. They tried it a lot, but only got in three or four times. And that second goal was so well played it may have come off even in good shape.

Nice day out in Lincoln as always, but the result was not surprising as they seem to have become our current bogey team. I noticed in the friendiy against Pompey how much of a high line we played and thought it suicidal to repeat that given our lack of pace. Hunt should have played Dorsett at CB and Garcia at LB. Wing/Camara unlucky with the disallowed goal and Wing hitting the woodwork again, but we really struggled up front with O'Mahony just not getting any service at all and the little we had just did not stick. A stern test to come against Huddersfield next week.

Easily one of the best away days in the division. Good choice of pubs throughout, not far to walk to the ground and locals always pleasant enough.

Not beaten Lincoln since November 1998 (2-1 at the Mad Stad) since then there’s been 6 games and Reading have managed just 3 draws.

If Hunt does a Russell Martin manager type thing and persists on a high line when there’s sod all pace in the defence then he’s probably going to get sacked very quickly.

More than a 5 for me, I`d give it a 7/10, I didn`t see too much of this hoofball that`s being touted about, I thought we played some decent stuff up to their area where we didn`t create chances. felt very sorry for the new CF, he was living off scraps.
Hopefully the promise of new players will come to fruition very soon, we`re not far away from being a decent side.

Yeah, having slept on it, 5/10 is a bit harsh.

I watched Noel's post match interview this morning and he said something I found interesting. He said they need to "tweak their shopping list", so I wonder if that means a different type of striker, a pacy defender or another creative player. Or possibly all three! If Cole and Ritchie do sign, then maybe the creative player.

More than a 5 for me, I`d give it a 7/10, I didn`t see too much of this hoofball that`s being touted about, I thought we played some decent stuff up to their area where we didn`t create chances. felt very sorry for the new CF, he was living off scraps.
Hopefully the promise of new players will come to fruition very soon, we`re not far away from being a decent side.

Yeah, having slept on it, 5/10 is a bit harsh.

I watched Noel's post match interview this morning and he said something I found interesting. He said they need to "tweak their shopping list", so I wonder if that means a different type of striker, a pacy defender or another creative player. Or possibly all three! If Cole and Ritchie do sign, then maybe the creative player.

Mahony needs a strike partner to play off, really don’t think he’s suited to a solo role. He can press to help win the ball back but doesn’t look like someone that will create something for himself out of nothing very much.

First rule of football, these days I thought, was players must have pace as that’s the most worrying thing for any side to defend against.

Always take a few days before my BFTG post to mull over it. I wasn’t wowed, I wasn’t gutted - I saw some positive shoots and saw negative ones.

The biggest concern is always when you see opposition fans question your teams set-up, and let’s face it - we played straight into their hands with a high line - they could defend in a block and let us have the ball, and it worked a treat with only really two long distance Wing shots causing problems. So for me, blame lands on the manager and coaching staff there & as rightly pointed out in here, without a pacey cb it’s suicide football with such a high line anyway.

From a personnel perspective, I thought Abrefa looked good, Wing didn’t get the ball enough to dictate play, Savage ran around a lot, Lane looked a handful when he came on and the lad up top worked hard but was at fault for the second goal as he couldn’t hold up play. Our best player, and who I’m convinced will be our POTS was Elliott. Can turn on a sixpence, drives forward, he will be key to our season.

Learnings -
- need to set up better to cater for opposition and our own strengths
- need a few more options up top, so cliche but to get promotion you need goals and we have one recognised striker in the squad, need to acquire at least two more for competition and versatility

Would pretty much echo this.
Also, rather damning comments from the Lincoln Manager

But we should be ‘fine with this’

Would pretty much echo this.
Also, rather damning comments from the Lincoln Manager



Apart from the 2-1 win at the Madejski in November 1998 of course.

Would pretty much echo this.
Also, rather damning comments from the Lincoln Manager



Apart from the 2-1 win at the Madejski in November 1998 of course.

Earnshaw regularly gets stats wrong and being called out for it on Twitter. Not a very good journo...wasn't even at the game on Saturday

Damning? He said we lost confidence after the second went in and maybe gave up a bit because we couldn’t break them down.

I'd say it was really a combination of the goal and some subs that disrupted our flow.

Literally very little to take from the first game of the season - at a venue we historically do poorly at on a day of the season we tend to also do poorly at.

There were some decent signs and some concerns (as you would expect on day 1) and it is very likely that the settled team will end up being 4 or 5 players different to that after the international break (assuming we have one).

The issues were more to do with the management’s decisions and approach than the players, Noel is still learning so let’s hope he is very flexible and doesn’t get entrenched in a specific dogma that he refuses to deviate from.