Before yesterday Lincoln City hadn’t won a single game at home this season and it seems manager Chris Sutton’s calls for atmosphere before the game certainly had an impact on City, as they beat Barnet 1-0 in a close affair at Sincil Bank.
The Imps started brightly and in the early stages of the match had the majority of possession. However the moment the City faithful had been anticipating came on 16 minutes after a penalty was awarded against Bees defender Joe Devera for a foul on Drewe Broughton.
Ben Hutchinson showed why he’s become first choice in Sutton’s plans since he joined on-loan from Celtic, calmly slotting home his spot-kick to the left of ‘keeper Jake Cole to score the only goal of the game.
As a result of the 1-0 victory against last season’s strugglers, Lincoln have now moved up to 15th place in the League Two table, with a total of seven points to their name. Assistant manager Ian Pearce gave his reaction to the press after the positive result and felt that overall it was a hard fought win.
He said: “We started off well in the first half and they came back into the second half but overall I think we deserved to get the win today and it’s nice to get three points.
“The two centre-halfs were really strong and the full-backs did their job and Joe [Anyon] behind them was excellent.
“They played against the big [Phil] Walsh who can cause teams a lot of trouble and they dealt with him well, stuck at their task and I think he’s going to win some headers but we had to pick up the second balls they managed to get into some good positions and managed to survive so it’s great a clean sheet and we’ve got to build on it.”
Pearce himself didn’t play through injury in yesterday’s fixture and with Sutton choosing to leave Moses Swaibu on the bench it was Paul Green who got the nod to play alongside Adam Watts in the centre of defence. The former West Ham defender supported the change in the back four and appreciates how versatile Green can be.
“We’re quite comfortable with him in there challenging with the big boys and getting his head on things because he’s as brave as a lion,” the assistant manager said.
Goalscorer Hutchinson has now scored two goals in two games and his confidence is very much reaching its peak yet Pearce doesn’t neccessarily feel that particular aspect has ever been a problem for the 22-year-old.
He said: “He’s a confident boy anyway I’ve got no qualms about him scoring goals, he’s come here and settled in well. I think his nickname’s Snowy because he’s settled in so nicely.
“He’s done well and he’s always going to get goals and he’s confident in the boys around him as well who were setting him up and providing the chances but we need to make sure that once we get two or three chances in a game we take more than we miss.”
Another player who has looked reassuring throughout the season has been Cian Hughton who has played as a right-back and a defensive midfielder already this year. Pearce rated his particular performance as ‘outstanding’ and ‘doing his job’.
“Cian’s been outstanding all of this season. He’s a great player, you know what you’re going to get from him, he came up against a tricky winger today that he dealt with and then he did his job and he was very steady for us. So, we’re very pleased with him today.”
Joe Anderson has been criticised by the City faithful recently after a slow start to the season and also after he made a couple of mistakes that led to goals in the season’s opener that ended in defeat away to Rotherham.
Anderson’s display against Barnet was one that was full of authority as he consistently bit at the heels of winger Mark Marshall, and the left-back admits that he was happy with a solid defensive play especially at Sincil Bank.
“I was pleased with my defending today and with the pitch as sticky as it was it wasn’t really a game that allowed us to get forward and pass the ball.
“Everyone in the squad knows that it isn’t just me there’s competition for places, there’s two players for every spot so everyone knows if they don’t perform they can quite easily be out of the team next week.
“We can go into the next game and get another win would keep the momentum building. We’ve got a run of games coming up that we fancy ourselves to win quite a few. So to keep winning is only a good thing,” the 20-year-old said.
Having a balanced side in any team is important but Anderson feels it to be crucial as that aspect of City’s game wasn’t there last year.
The left-back said: “Last season we didn’t really have any out wide men so this year we’ve got two good wingers that want to get at people.
“In training we do patterns of play quite a lot and with Albert [Jarrett] or Mus [Carayol] in front of me so we all know what each other’s going to do — just give the ball to them and let them play.”