Reaction to the win at Stockport
By Nathan Jackson
January 22 2011
Just seven days after a lot of Imps fans started to accept relegation was looking very likely, the Imps produced an excellent attacking performance to beat a Stockport side who seem to be one of the favourites for the drop now, that despite only being in the drop zone for a single week this season.
Firstly, let's get it out of the way, Stockport are poor. Stockport are very, very poor. I thought I had seen some rubbish defending from the Imps this season but nothing quite to the extent what Stockport produced today. Granted, they had a bit of fight to constantly keep getting back in the game, but when you let the lowest goalscorers in the country come to your ground and score four goals, you're in trouble. It seems just a matter of time, but if Stockport are still a Football League side in four months time, I will be very, very surprised.
Enough about our opponents though and on to us. Where better to start than Mr Grimes? For the first few games of his loan spell I was actually puzzled as to what he offered. He did really get involved and you'd have been forgiven for not noticing him playing, but then a chance goal at Morecambe has changed everything and he is having the same sort of impact as the loanees of some previous seasons, such as Davide Somm
a last season and Jamie Forrester in 2005/6.
The class he shows in front of goal is excellent. He's a thinker in front of goal, infact, he's very similar in terms of general striking ability to Jamie Forrester. He vision, anticipation and finish is excellent, and much like Somma, he will go down as the outfield player to remember this season. What I like about him is that he doesn't panic, his third goal today was a fine example of him being calm in frantic situations. He could have easily blasted it, but he placed it calmly into the net.
However, the contribution of the other's in an attacking sense should certainly not be underestimated. Whether it was the poor defence we were facing, or it was genuinely a good attacking display from us, we looked excellent every single time we went forward we looked dangerous. This isn't the Lincoln side that had no attacking intent just a few months ago and I think that we're now seeing that before hand we were too over-reliant on Carayol and Jarrett in the past, and it's certainly interesting that we're finding the net regularly without them on the pitch.
Whilst Grimes will get all the headlines, I must pay tribute to Facey. Let's face it, he's not a briliant player, he's not one who's going to get to double digits in a season, but he offers you something that not a lot of players have, strength on the ball. He may not be fast and his control might not be the best, but his strength makes him an asset and he will probably be the unsung hero of the day. He puts in a shift (you only need to see the level of sweat he produces to see that) and today he worked his socks off...it's just a pity he was offside for his goal at the end.
Much like the game itself, I'm going to switch to the other end of the pitch and the defence. To be fair I don't think the defence did much wrong today. At the time of writing I haven't seen the goals since seeing them at the stadium, but in my opinion none were their fault. Two half decent finishes and an own goal sailed into the City net and Carson didn't stand a chance with any of them in an otherwise impressive debut for the goalkeeper.
And before I get onto the scores, I must say that it's nice watching pass and move football that is paying off in terms of goals. Sutton's tactics were hoof it to the front and then play football, Jackson's was pretty much the same, but the football we're trying to play is very similar to the early days of Schofield and Deehan.
THEIMPS.KA OFFICIAL RATINGS | |
 | Anyon isn't in the squad and we don't see any goalkeeping mistakes, coincedence??? I think not. Carson looked fairly assured in the goal, didn't really have much of a chance with the three goals and other than a bit of poor kicking, he didn't do a lot wrong. 7/10 |
 | One of the two players making his debut for the Imps and although it was nothing to right home about, he did a reasonable job. Passing went awry a bit but other than that, satisfactory. 7/10 |
 | It's not often that a defender will score for both teams during a game. He's been looking for sneaky goals since joining City and produced a decent finish. He also looked far happier playing for a goalkeeper who wasn't afraid to say his piece. 7/10 |
 | Hone continues to do reasonably well since coming back from Darlington and his assertive approach to defending. No complaints about the youngster. 7/10. |
 | If there's one player who worried me a lot against Stockport it was Kelly. I just feel nervous whenever there's an attack against him and his passing is, to be generous, not the best. Having said that, he hasn't played first team football for quite some time so I'll give him a bit of a let off for the time being. 7/10 |
 | Howell is a midfielder who I'm still trying to figure out. He reminds me a bit of Lee Frecklington in terms of his technical ability, but he is far more firey, but in this case that's a good thing. He had a decent game against Stockport was was unlucky not to score in the attack that lead to Grimes' hatrick goal. 7/10 |
 | Carayol made some good runs before eventually having to go off injured. I can't give him any more than a default five becuase he wasn't on the pitch for long. 5/10 |
 |
I've never overly been impressed by O'Keefe, but the game against Stockport was certainly one of his better games and one of the few where he actually appeared to try. 7/10 |
 | Didn't have a bad game but didn't really do a lot in the process. Produced a few good runs down the left but it also took too long for some crosses to be delivered and the set pieces were generally poor. 5.5/10 |
 | Three very different, but three very well taken goals to become the first Imps hatrick scorer in 51 months. I could go on for quite some time about how well he played, but I think you get the idea by the score below. Also, one thing I loved was that he quite clearly cared and was getting irate at the referee when decisions weren't going his way, although he did look like probably getting sent off. 9.5/10 |
 | Delroy had an excellent game, he may not have scored (well, not a legal goal anyway), but he was a vital part of why City scored four. 8.5/10 |
 | Kerr came on early and generally did well throughout. You know what you're getting with Kerr, he cares and his vision is reasonable....whether his pass comes off is a very different matter though. 7/10 |
 | Came on as a late sub and didn't really have a chance to do anything. Did provide one good ball for a chance though. 6/10 |
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how can you give 7/10's to a back 5 that conceeded 3 goals to a poor team?????
So next tome anyon only let's in one goal does he get a 10/10
