RHEAD ‘EM AND WEEP! IMPS KEEP ON FLYING
Matt’s a two-goal hero as Cowley sees room to improve
DANNY Cowley felt relieved after watching his Lincoln side record a first ever home win over Woking.
Gozie Ugwu cancelled out Matt Rhead’s header early on, while Josh Ginnelly’s deselected strike and a second from Rhead put the Imps in control. Fabio Saraiva’s penalty ensured some nervy moments at the end for the hosts, but the league leaders held on.
“There were some good and bad moments, but I thought we learned a lot about ourselves today,” said Cowley. “We made it really hard for ourselves because we gave an awful goal away in the first half. Then we miss a penalty, but you have to be big enough to overcome that.
“At 3-1 we came away from our principles and that gave us trouble in the last half an hour of the game, but bearing in mind things went against us, we’ve done well to win the game.”
After an excellent passing move on nine minutes, it was the Imps who went ahead when Rhead stooped to head home a pin-point Bradley Wood cross. The joy was shortlived, however, as two minutes later Woking were back on level terms. Saraiva’s curling free-kick found Ugwu, who neatly headed home his 11th goal of the season.
The visitors were beginning to get a foothold in the game and should have gone ahead on 16 minutes. Two former Lincoln players in Jake Caprice and Macauley Bonne combined, only for the latter to side foot wide from close range with an open goal at his mercy.
In an open encounter, action at the other end saw Rhead win a penalty after being pulled down by Ismail Yakubu as he tried to meet a Sam Habergham cross. Dayle Southwell took the resulting spot-kick, but the loanee fired at Michael Poke. Southwell tried to make amends shortly afterwards by dispossessing Joey
Jones, only to be denied once more by Poke, this time at the near-post.
After the break the Imps soon regained the lead when substitute Josh Ginnelly smashed a first time strike past Poke, though the ball did take a cruel deflection off the leg of Terell Thomas. Ginnelly was subsequently booked for his involvement in the Imps’ celebrations.
The Cards thought they had equalised for a second time just before the hour, only for the referee to rule out Kieran Murtagh’s header, having spotted a push.
It soon got worse for Woking as straight down at the other end, Billy Knott selfishly played in Rhead, who took a touch before rolling the ball past Poke into the bottom corner.
The action wasn’t over yet though as substitute Max Kretzschmar tested Paul Farman with a 35-yard drive before earning his side a penalty, having been fouled by Elliott Whitehouse. Saraiva, who impressed for Woking all afternoon, sent Farman the wrong way from 12 yards.
“We worked very hard on the day and I thought we were unlucky,” said Garry Hill “At 1-1 we were in the ascendency, but things go against us as they do when you’re playing top of the league in front of six thousand people. We’ll take positives from the game and try and be upbeat, but it hurts that we got nothing.”
“There were some good and bad moments, but we learned a lot about ourselves today” Danny Cowley Lincoln manager “We’ll take positives from the game and try and be upbeat, but it hurts that we got nothing” Garry Hill Woking manager