Ipswich Town v Lincoln City
FA Cup 3rd Round
Saturday 7th January 2016 – 15:00
Portman Road
Opening Thought – Jamma
I joked with Shed in the QPR preview about how our records of watching Ipswich at Loftus Road were equally unenviable. By the final whistle on Monday, it was no laughing matter, as the two of us – along with quite a few other Town fans, I imagine – walked away after seeing our winless run in that particular corner of West London continue. As I was in a rather morose mood on the way home, I decided to analyse my own Ipswich Town away record further. I worked out that, as well as being the third loss out of three that I had witnessed in W12, the 2-1 reverse was also the third time in four away days that I had seen us concede a late winner. Discounting the possibility of my presence being a particularly bad omen, there has been a number of reasons why we have been susceptible to this late sucker punch – poor refereeing decisions and sheer misfortune amongst them. On Monday, though, I think it was easy to identify the main cause. Having been unlucky to find ourselves a goal down at the break, in yet another Championship match-up with nothing to choose between the two sides, Josh Emmanuel was the unfortunate one to be sacrificed as Mick McCarthy abandoned his latest wing-back experiment. When Tom Lawrence arrowed a 25-yard thunderbolt into the top corner within three minutes of the restart, it was looking like an inspired change. But, as Mick has previously told us, ‘You can quickly go from God to dog in this game’. And so it proved, as several presentable chances came and went for the revitalised Blues, Myles Kenlock boosting his own claims for a regular start with one memorable run taking him around James Perch and ending with a shot that was barely kept out by Alex Smithies at his near post. And then came what many will insist was the key moment in the match, when McCarthy decided to replace the apparently tiring Kevin Bru with Jonathan Douglas. The boos from the away end, presumably directed at the change as opposed to the player himself, hinted at the anticipated defensive shift that ensued. From there, you could see Town retreating into their shell, and the Rs’ clincher was as predictable as the way in which it came about, the latest in a series of defensive slips summing up our season to date.
The conundrum at the moment is that Mick McCarthy still seems to be no nearer to knowing his best team. We went through a period when he appeared intent on playing his so-called ‘favourites’, and often out of position. So it was that we had Douglas playing alongside Cole Skuse, in an overly defensive midfield, and Freddie Sears stuck out on the wing even though his confidence was clearly suffering for it. When Mick shook up his backline for Monday’s game, it allowed another of his first names on the teamsheet, Luke Chambers, to move across to centre-back, resulting in what looked on paper to be a much more balanced team. Unfortunately, as soon as we suffer a setback, McCarthy tends to take it as a sign to revert to his ‘tried and tested’ formula, seemingly in a spirit of defiance against the supporters’ dissenting voices. It was as if, having given it a good go against Rangers but failed to blow the door down, he was more concerned about shoring up our own defences than keeping the pressure on. Ultimately, we will never know whether the result would have been different had Bru made way for a Sears or an Andre Dozzell. That is partly where the supporters’ frustration comes from, plus the fact that we still went and lost anyway. The team selection at 2.00pm on Saturday becomes even more interesting, for what realistically remains our last chance of salvaging something from 2016/17. The Blues have toiled to an FA Cup 3rd round exit following a replay to lower league opposition in two of the last three campaigns. But defeat to a Conference side, regardless of Lincoln’s standing at the top of the league, would surely see Mick’s days numbered.
The Opposition – Lincoln City
Lincoln City formed officially as an amateur association in 1884 after the disbanding of Lincoln Rovers (formerly Lincoln Recreation).
Lincoln soon helped to form what was then the Second Division in the 1892–93 season, as an increasing number of clubs wished to join the Football League. The first game at Sincil Bank was in 1895, after the club moved from the John O'Gaunts Ground, and ended in a friendly draw with local rivals Gainsborough Trinity.
Up until the 1920s, Lincoln spent most of their time swinging between the Second Division and the more localised leagues, the Midland and also the Central league. After then, however, in the 1921–22 season, Lincoln, along with several other clubs from the Central and Midland leagues, founded the Third Division (North). The newly founded league and the Second Division would take turns in becoming Lincoln's home up until the early 1960s, when they would drop a further division to the Fourth Division in the 1962–63 season.
Their championship honours include three Division 3 (North) championships, in 1931–32, 1947–48 and 1951–52, and a Division 4 (now League Two) championship in 1975–76 (when they were managed by future England manager Graham Taylor).
It was the 1975–76 season when the club broke the record for most points for a whole season, when 2 instead of 3 points were awarded for a win, with 74 points in total (this is the record amount of points achieved under the 2-point system); the record of winning the most games (32) and losing the fewest (4) was also set. City also become the first club in nearly a decade to score over 100 league goals (111 in total). They also won 21 out of 23 home league games in this season (the other 2 were drawn) and won 11 games away from home, another impressive return from the club. It was the season where, Graham Taylor recalls, "teams were petrified of coming to Sincil Bank".
In 1982, and again in 1983, Lincoln narrowly missed out on promotion to the Second Division. In 1985, Lincoln were the opposition at Bradford City when the Bradford City stadium fire claimed the lives of 56 spectators – two of them, Bill Stacey and Jim West, were Lincoln fans, and subsequently these fans had the Stacey West stand named after them.
Lincoln were relegated on the last day of the following season, and the year after that they became the first team to suffer automatic relegation from the Football League. This was a dramatic decline for a club who had almost reached the Second Division four years earlier and has been linked to the trauma arising from the disaster. This marked the fourth occasion on which Lincoln were demoted from the Football League, a record that still stands.
They regained their Football League place automatically via promotion as champions of the Conference (previously it was done by re-election) at the first attempt, with a long ball game devised by eccentric manager Colin Murphy, and held on to it until the end of the 2010–11 season. On 8 September 1990, Lincoln were the opposition when David Longhurst suffered a fatal heart attack during the first half of a game against York City at Bootham Crescent.
On 3 May 2002, Lincoln successfully petitioned to go into administration but the financial crisis would leave the First Team squad bereft of players as the day saw five senior players released at the end of their contracts, with a sixth departing for Leyton Orient. A hectic day finished with confirmation of Keith Alexander's official appointment as team manager.
In 2002–03, Alexander was given the task of keeping the team in the Football League. He confounded the many pundits and fans who believed that Lincoln would be relegated and sent out of business due to financial irregularities. With a team made up of cheap ex-non-league players and the lower-paid members of the previous season's squad, he managed to take them to the play-off final, which they lost to Bournemouth. The team were rewarded with a civil reception in Lincoln, and an open-top bus ride through Lincoln, an event that was usually reserved for the winners of such competitions but was awarded to the team because of the massive achievement.
In 2003–04, Alexander again proved the critics wrong by coaching the Imps to another play-off position, this time losing to eventual winners Huddersfield Town in the semi-finals. Alexander, one of the very few black managers in the Football League, had a very serious brain injury (a cerebral aneurysm) halfway through the season, but made a full recovery. In the 2004–05 season, they again qualified for the play-offs, for a third year running, and in the semi-finals Lincoln beat Macclesfield Town 2–1 on aggregate over two legs but lost in the final against Southend United 2–0 after extra time.
In the 2005–06 season, the club finished 7th in League 2 after only losing 3 games in the New Year. Lincoln were to face local neighbours Grimsby Town in the play-offs, a side they had beaten 5–0 at Sincil Bank earlier in the season. However, once again it was not to be, as Lincoln lost 3–1 on aggregate to become the first team ever to lose four consecutive play-off competitions.
Keith Alexander left his position as manager of Lincoln City by mutual consent on 24 May 2006, stating that he could take the club no further, and shortly after, on 15 June, John Schofield was appointed his successor. For the fifth year in a row, but under a different manager, Lincoln City reached the League Two play-offs, after finishing 5th in the league (the highest position in which they have qualified for the play-offs). Once again, however, they lost, this time to Bristol Rovers in the semi-finals, courtesy of a 2–1 defeat away and a 3–5 defeat at home. The failure to succeed in five successive play-off competitions is a record for any club.
After a run of nine losses and a draw in the final ten games, Lincoln City were relegated from League Two on the last day of the 2010–2011 season, finishing in 23rd place.
Lincoln City have played in the Conference Premier since the 2011–12 season.
The Manager – Danny Cowley
Past Match - Video Highlights - Trev
Ok no previous meetings found, so a look back to the semi final against WBA in 1978.
Media Watch - K L Blue
Poll: ME's 5-point plan:
http://www.sudburymercury.co.uk/sport/p ... _1_4835164
MM to play strong side:
http://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/ipswi ... story.html
Conor Grant:
http://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/30883/
MM on the QPR game:
http://the72.co.uk/70968/ipswich-town-b ... te-defeat/
Ipswich Last 5 Matches
QPR 2-1 Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town 2-1 Bristol City
Ipswich Town 0-2 Fulham FC
Wigan Athletic 2-3 Ipswich Town
Birmingham City 2-1 Ipswich Town
Lincoln City Last 5 Matches (Currently in 1st Place of Conference League)
Lincoln City 3-1 Guiseley AFC
Guiseley AFC 2-1 Lincoln City
Nantwich Town 1-2 Lincoln City
Lincoln City 2-1 Tranmere Rovers
Lincoln City 3-2 Oldham Athletic
The Don Cup Competition
Happy New Year, Y'all!
Excellent week of captions back when Ipswich played Fulham....... One draw amongst them as they couldn't be separated.
Hopefully you all continue to slog it out until season’s end to get your name onto that trophy.
Can I just say, sometimes the result of the game could be used to go towards the caption, so please feel free to have a go after the game, or even on the Sunday!
Scores
Nicscreamer 5pts
Tangtastic 4 pts
Frosty & Ando 3pts
Derickipsw 2pts
League table
Gold&Black 41
Herforder 39
DerickIpsw 38
Nicscreamer 37
Blueblood 31
Frosty 31
Bluemike 30
Ando 30
Quasar 24
Tangfastic 17
Patthegimp 17
Watership Down 16
IpswichtownNo1 14
Shed on Tour 12
Number 9 11
Ashfordblue 6
LoudNProud 5;
Supershred 3
Longjohn 1
Foxy Lady 1
Barmy Billy 1
ItfcTrev76 1
Have a go at this:
Match referee – Lee Probert
Final Thought Bluemike
Sitting down to write this article I actually found myself struggling to know just what to write. As I trudged out of Loftus Road following yet another disappointing afternoon I was trying to make sense of what I had just witnessed. Seventy minutes of pretty decent fare in truth, Town in the ascendancy and playing quite well, looking like the team that was going to go on and win the game, Two youngsters brought in as Wing backs and doing well, Lawrence coming up with a screamer of a goal, fans singing and supporting in the right way, everything was rosy, what could possibly go wrong ? What followed is well documented and beggars belief.
OK IF Kenlock was injured then why the hell did we not revert back to the starting formation of 3-5-2 and have Knudsen & Ward playing the wing backs roles ? I am sure it would have been safer with the Three CB'S than how it panned out. Add to that scenario why oh why did we not bring on Dozzell as we did against Bristol City and continue to go for the jugular ? I've read Mick's comments about it being a different situation and he needed Douglas in there !!! What bullshit, he shut up shop and hoped for the point again, it actually drove me nuts Monday, I was furious all the way home and beyond. Let's get one thing clear, I disagree with those fools that blame Douglas and give him hell, the guy is not at fault, any good Manager would know that the fans are getting on Douglas back more and more and he should not have exposed him to that kind of situation, it was only ever going to end one way and it was p*ss poor management all round. McCarthy had a chance to build on a little bit of respite after Bristol and he blew it big time, you can only back a manager so much but when he makes idiotic errors like that then he deserves everything he gets.
We have been pretty disrespectful to the FA Cup in recent seasons, I would suggest this time around it needs to be taken seriously, the League season is going to plod along as it has been, win one, lose one, so the club has to give the fans something to get excited about and what better than a decent little cup run with a big team tie at the end of it ? That said Lincoln will be no walk in the park either and with near on 4,500 fans cheering them on they will feel like they have home advantage, I expect the noise from that lot will be awesome and good luck to them. We have to win this game, not only to keep the fans coming but these are non league for christ sake, we would be a even bigger laughing stock than we are at times now. I think we will somehow scramble through at the first attempt.....JUST.
IPSWICH TOWN 3 LINCOLN CITY 0
Love these combative cup ties, I'll go for a 5-1 win over Lincoln.