Lincoln Men’s Football beat Aston 2-0 to advance to the next round of the Midlands Conference Cup.
Lincoln started the first half brightly, keeping hold of the ball well and exploiting the wide areas, but more often than not no one was in the box and the Aston goalkeeper was rarely troubled.
The only time Lincoln really threatened in the first half was with direct long balls and the odd speculative shot.
And the best chance of the half came from a long ball.
A clearance from the goalkeeper bounced over the Aston defence but an attempted lob didn’t go high enough to go over the Aston keeper, who’s tip slowed the ball down enough for defenders to come and clear.
While Aston didn’t get much of the ball, they still threaten the Lincoln back line.
The hosts gave away free kicks in dangerous areas and the height in the Aston team gave Lincoln a lot to think about.
The second half started off at a slow pace with each side battling in the midfield for the ball.
However Aston started to grow into the match and had more possession in the final third, leading to a number of chances on goal.
The home side nearly fell behind when an effort from Aston was spilled by the Lincoln keeper, but luckily he got enough of it to send it wide for a corner, which was then cleared.
For all the threat that Aston caused during set pieces, it was ironic that it was a set piece that would be the undoing of them.
The visitors defence completely switched off from a corner and the shortest man on the pitch, Ash Smith, headed in from close range to give Lincoln the lead.
Lincoln started to boss the game and came very close to making to making it two shortly after the restart.
A great cross-field ball to the right opened up the Aston defence for Danny Moss, who despite having all the time in the world, hit the ball just wide of the far post.
Moss would get his goal though and once again the right wing was the provider.
A brilliant cross was sent into the box and an unmarked Moss stooped low to head it past the goalkeeper.
This sealed the win and meant that they progressed to the next round where they’ll face either the Coventry 2nds or University College Birmingham’s 1sts.
Men’s Football Captain Matt Dye
“Pleased with the result but the performance was disappointing, especially first half.”
“Main thing is that we got through to the next round and we go again in the league next week.”
“I said to one of the lads before the game that once we got the first goal it’d be alright but up till then it’d be a struggle for us.”
On Ash Smith’s Goal “We’ve been working on a few things in training set piece wise and we scored from one! I don’t know if I take credit or the lads.”
On Aston “I thought they battled well they didn’t give us any time on the ball. Compared to the other two weeks where we had plenty of time so fair play to them.”
On the potentially winning the cup “Can’t see why not, but we’ve got to play better than today.”