Michael Skubala was disappointed with Lincoln City’s performance against Reading, but was happy to take a point from the LNER Stadium on Saturday.
He said: “We weren’t good today. We didn’t affect their last line quick enough when we were trying to be direct, and we didn’t keep it well enough when we needed to so in the end it was a really scrappy game for us. We did not really get enough out of the game, but then if you can’t win it, don’t lose it.”
Lincoln City ended the afternoon with a 1-1 draw, despite two disallowed goals for the away side in an incident-filled game.
The Imps backline was tested against a Reading side that had 66% possession over the course of the game. Skubala said: “Adam Jackson is an important player and has that experience and I thought he was good today. I thought TJ [Eyoma] and Paudie [O’Connor] stood up as well today.”
“I think we just need a bit more quality at times. When we did have little spells, we didn’t really affect again in the final third. We are just not having enough of the ball and not being dangerous enough in the final third.”
“We just couldn’t get a grip on the game today.” – Lincoln City head coach Michael Skubala
The Imps head coach added: “Reading are a good team, they are in a league position which doesn’t say how good they are. They have some good individual players and we struggled to cope with that in the wide areas. I think in the end it was a big shift, a tough shift, but a point.”
It was a perfect start for City, taking the lead after only three minutes, via an Nelson Abbey own goal.
The City head coach was delighted with that: “We talked about starting fast, aggressive, getting on their backline and putting them under pressure and I thought they did that well. In the first five minutes, I thought we started the game really well. It looked like when we scored, we became passive. We came off it too much and in the end we couldn’t get back to the fast pace we started with.”
Another Imps injury woe
A major blow to the squad was unveiled before kick-off, with midfielder Ethan Erhahon left out of the squad with a thigh problem.
Skubala spoke about how much the side missed the Scotsman: “It shows you what a big player he is for the club, and it shows you no disrespect to Teddy [Bishop], but he’s been out injured for a while and he is starting to tire, I thought he had good moments.”
“It’s a training injury. It’s a thigh strain. We didn’t want to risk it because he is so important. With the injury situation we have on the front line at the minute, I don’t think we need to lose bodies where we are at the moment,” he added.
Jensen goalkeeping heroics
City goalkeeper Lukas Jensen was one of the few players who had a positive performance.
Speaking to LincSport, Skubala praised the Imps’ number one: “He is a good shot-stopper, he does that well. We know what he can do on crosses and shot stopping. I thought he had a good game, and at times his kicking was good. We needed him at times, with some big saves.”
The Imps travel to Derby County on Thursday, looking to extend their unbeaten league run six matches, before hosting Bolton Wanderers at the LNER on Boxing Day.