Lincoln City head coach Mark Kennedy spoke after his side lost 1-0 to Burton Albion following a second-half Danny Mandroiu red card.
Kennedy said: “I think with 11-men we win the game,” adding that “[the red card] changed the course of the game.”
The Imps’ head coach had an honest assessment of Mandroiu’s red card, which he received for a rash challenge in the 55th minute. Speaking to BBC Radio Lincolnshire’s Michael Horton after the gam, he said: “What’s disappointing for me is that I had multiple conversations with him this week. So, for him to get the red card so quickly is mind-boggling for me to understand, but we’re here to educate him and help him.”
“Danny’s future is simple to me. I don’t know where he’ll be in five years. He could be in the Championship or he could be back in Ireland.” He added: “If he changes his mentality and the structure to his game, he’s got incredible talent, he could go wherever he wants to go. But, if he doesn’t change that he’ll just be another statistic.”
He believes Mandroiu, who has not long since returned from an injury is at a crossroads in his career. He said: “He’s a really good professional and a really good person. The ball is in his court.”
It was City’s first home league loss of the season, following a season where only Burton and Peterborough United picked up a win at the LNER Stadium.
Mark Kennedy did express his pleasure at how his team played for the most part. “I thought we caused them some problems and played possession with a purpose. It was always going to be difficult to break down a dogged Burton side with a lot of people behind the ball and defending in numbers.”
The Imps had the better of the first-half, but failed to capitalise on their dominance with a goal. Kennedy said: “I was really pleased, really positive, really comfortable at half-time. I thought we controlled the game well.”
Receiving the red card and then conceding a goal within three minutes left Lincoln with an up-hill battle to climb.
Mark delivered his thoughts to LincSport on if his side did enough when playing with 10-men. He said: “Not in terms of working the ‘keeper, but I thought we got ourselves into a lot of good position. I thought we worked the final third really well. Were we let ourselves down was our quality, especially down the left-hand side, into the box.”
Kennedy did believe there was positives to take from the game, despite the result. He said: “I thought there were a load of positives. The huge negative comes from a poor decision and not a poor display.”
The loss leaves Lincoln City in sixteenth, having won just three of their last ten games in all competitions.