Defining ‘win ugly’ in the Lincoln sun
THERE’S a saying, we’ve all used it: ‘it’s a sign of a good team that wins without playing well.’ Lately I’ve been hearing another: ‘win ugly.’
Saturday in Lincolnshire the beautiful game was anything but. County were awful, Gainsborough were awful, the referee was awful, thankfully the weather was ...... beautiful and the Lincolnshire hot dog was marvellous.
I’ve no idea why we weren’t able to take hold of the game, I thoroughly expected us to trounce Gainsborough who, let’s not forget, have the worst form in the division at the moment.
Could it be nerves or pressure that’s getting to the team? We had one change in personnel, Chris Smalley missing with a fractured foot, but the team should be strong enough to compensate for his loss.
Whatever the reason we just didn’t get going. Trinity, fighting for their lives, were able to spoil every attacking move we made and while our defence was solid as a rock, limiting the home side to just one attempt on target, up front we came up against a determined defence. Lacking skill, they made up for it with a fair amount of hoof. Ben Hinchliffe had one of the quietest afternoons of the season.
The referee made some decisions that were truly baffling.
The penalty awarded when Connor Hampson was brought down in the box was correct but there were far worse challenges that were ignored and it always seems odd when one side is penalised for creeping forward on throw ins while the other side are not.
One side have the 10 yards stepped out for free kick while, again, the other side don’t.
However, the one important decision, at least as far as the travelling faithful were concerned, was given and Danny Lloyd slotted home his second penalty in as many games.
The Trinity never looked like scoring and without much ado we ran the clock down. We left Gainsborough with three points, a full belly and, thanks to the sun, heads the colour of a beetroot.
Some of the other results went our way which just made things even tighter at the top but with four games to go, all winnable, we should make the play-offs.
I’m under no illusion, Saturday’s performance was in no way the best and must be improved upon.
Come on Jim work your magic!