Match Thread Lincoln

Hugely impressive first half.

Eastwood looked extremely assured & a good base to build upon.

Mullarkey absolutely nailed on to be a fans favourite.

Conteh… I’ll tell you now, he’ll go for a lot of money.

Rose, he’s going to be our lynchpin this season. Everything came through him & it was effective. However, we need to ensure that we have a replacement for him in case of injury/suspension. If I was going to be ultra critical, I do wonder if we’ll be a little bit predictable but teams will struggle to defend against his hold up play, supported by the pace around him.

Great evening at BP.

Was against a Lincoln reserve side with trialists and youth so not gonna get too carried away.

Rose is very good, with a great leap, thought Eisa looked handy and Eastwood in goal looked very assured

Vernam not really in the game, much like the Hull game.

Good to be back at a rainy BP In the summer months though

Quoted from moosey_club

Positives - Mullarkey, Conteh, Hunt, Eastwood, Maher, Rodgers, Eisa , Glennon all looked good tonight and pretty comfortable to have the ball even when under pressure

Middling - Clifton, didn't influence alot for me this evening. Rose a little isolated,  worked but didn't look too threatening in himself ( caveat...my feed to the game froze just before his goal so no idea how he scored )

Negative - Vernam looked ineffective other than a few minutes around his scuffed chance when he rounded the keeper.

I guess Lincolns board will be full of ..."its only their second string excuses " then..

Agree with most of that . A little harsh on Rose. Vernam the one worry at this stage.

Rekeil Pyke injured?

Like others have said it was an entertaining game and whilst Lincoln didn’t field their strongest team the fact that a number thought Eastwood was MOM demonstrates that it was still a competitive game.

My initial impression is that we are destined for more entertaining matches at BP this season and those not renewing season tickets may regret that decision. We tried to play the ball on the floor and whilst there was the obligatory passing amongst the back four this was minimal and in Hunt and Conteh we have two players who want to receive the ball and get it moving forwards with a number of quick interchanges involving a number of players. Agree with poster above re Conteh and whilst I don’t want to get carried away he looks like our own version of Jude Bellingham, big strong good on the ball he always seemed to be in the right place to pick up the loose ball. Looks like I did get carried away but he looks the real deal but let’s hope he reproduces this come the leagues start.

Thought Harry struggled to get in the game in a pretty unfamiliar number 8 role first half and although a bit more involved second half it was not his best game but that’s no big deal. Only disappointing aspect for me was Vernam’s performance but as with Harry you rarely get all eleven having good games on the same night.

Will finally sign off with praise for Rodgers and Maher who will take some shifting as first choices but Waterfall has overcome bigger hurdles so excellent choices at the back.

I really liked the dynamic between Hunt, Conteh and Clifton in midfield tonight. Think that trio has real potential.

Really enjoyed that if I’m honest. I know there’s issues with the strength of squad Lincoln brought but you can only play what’s infront of you.

Thought we played some really good, entertaining stuff and you even saw the forward line starting to gel as the game progressed. The intensity of the pressing was good and like against Hull we look like we can nick it high up and that will make us very dangerous in the League. Overall though we just look an awful lot more comfortable on the ball which should solve some of the frustrations from last year where we just missed the killer bit in our play.

There was one move in the first half which ended up with Glennon putting a really good ball in that narrowly missed our oncoming player (couldn’t see but assume it was Clifton) the interplay and movement to create that was very very good.

A few thoughts;

Eastwood: Honestly, as I said at the time, never understood the issue some had with him he’s a very capable keeper and showed us that when he was here a few years back. He had a really good game tonight. Looks confident and assured, a few good saves and dominates the area better than I remember. The one where he shot off his line to collect at a strikers feet was great and probably went under the radar.

Rodgers looks a massive addition.

Mullarkey ahead of Efete for me. Defensively looks very sound and when further up has a little more confidence and directness about what he does and linking with the winger/overlapping etc.

Hunt: we know he’s good on the ball but he’s definitely been in the gym this summer. A few occasions he out muscled their midfielders and if he can now add that to his game, he will be a much improved player. Think him and Conteh compliment each other well.

Conteh - wow. That’s it really…

Everyone had good games but they’re the things that stood out for me. Obviously tired and Lincoln dominated the ball more second half but that isnt surprising when they made 8 subs with fresh legs, encouraging it didn’t cause to many problems in our defensive third even if we did start to lose out in midfield.

Early days… but we may, just May, have a team on our hands here!

(Special mention to Danny Rose being a proper shitehouse aswell, in a pre season friendly - love it)

Quoted from ChannelMariner

Rekeil Pyke injured?

Yes.

Eastwood was the pick of the "new" signings for me, very impressive and having Cartwright pushing for the first team will mean that he has to maintain this level of performance. Eisa's performance was promising as well, the way he switched between inside and out wide will be a nightmare for most defenders at this level. Hunt looks ready to be a regular starter but I thought Conteh looked like Hunt last year - flashes of potential but not quite there yet. Exciting times with a team looking to play on the front foot.

Worth every penny yesterday for me.