Lincoln City head coach Michael Skubala was left “disappointed” as his side lost to Barnsley.
In their first home game of the 2024/25 SkyBet League One season, the Imps conceded twice on their way to defeat. Sam Cosgrove netted in the 10th minute, before Marc Roberts headed home straight after the half-time interval.
A Ben House strike paved the way for a possible comeback, but Barnsley managed to hold on to the three points.
Speaking to The Linc, he said: “I’m disappointed by the result, not the performance. And, I’m disappointed by a couple of moments. Now I feel down because I think we’ve done enough to win it, but all in all we’re moving in the right direction.
“We looked fast, we looked good on the counter. We knew they would be open on the counter, so we had a way of playing so we could land on that. We did well on the counter attack, and we should have probably scored one or two.”
Lincoln City conceded another headed goal, from another cross, after Burton Albion twice scored through that route in the season opener.
“We need to do some work on all areas of the pitch. Yes, we’ve conceded that one [from a cross], but we need to be more aggressive in those moments,” the former Leeds United under-21s head coach said.
When quizzed on how far he thinks the Imps are from where he wants them to be, the City boss said: “We’ve got work to do still. We’ve got to train hard, we’ve got to keep working, and we’ve got to keep improving. We are alright, but we’ve got to keep improving. You can see that we’ve got to sure things up at the back, but we are moving in the right direction.”
A “Tough Scoreline” and Referee Controversy:
Speaking to BBC Radio Lincolnshire journalist Michael Hortin, Skubala added: “I think it’s a tough scoreline, when we look back at that game I think we will say that we played well. We started the game brightly, we’ve made a mistake for the first goal, we weren’t tight enough. It came from an error, it came from switching off a bit.”
He went on to describe Roberts’ header as a “soft goal” to concede. It was the third headed goal that the Imps have conceded in their two league outings so far this term.
There were a couple of contentious moments involving referee Martin Coy. One involved an off-the-ball incident that Skubala described as a “punch” towards one of his players.
“I don’t think you can punch people around the head and get away with it in football, but there you go,” he said.
He added that it should have been a red card for the Barnsley man. He was then asked about a potential penalty claim for his side, when Tendayi Darikwa was taken down in the box midway through the second-half. Skubala said: “I think it’s a pen[alty]… I think the referee has just got them wrong.”
The Imps head coach added: “It’s disappointing because when you play well you want to get something out of the game. A draw would have been nice, even if we couldn’t win it. But, I thought we did enough to get something out of the game.”
Lincoln City will hope to turn their fortunes around when they welcome promoted Mansfield Town next Saturday.
Feature Image Credit: Graham Burrell