A young Lincoln City side fell to a 2-1 defeat in the Senior County Cup quarter final against rivals Lincoln United on Wednesday night, with U18s manager Sam Tillen praising the sides ability to compete.
Following a goalless first half, the Whites hitman Connor Brown opened the scoring after poking it past Jaden Taylor with just under five minutes of the half left.
Just 15 minutes later and a Gbolahan Okewoye screamer would put City back on terms, before Max Baker was taken down in the box which allowed Elliot Dye to win the tie for manager Billy Heath’s side in what was his first game in charge.
On the overall performance, Tillen said: “Yeah I thought we competed really well, I thought we were very diligent, worked hard.
“At times we could’ve had a bit more composure and quality in the final third but withstanding that I thought it was a good overall performance.
“Unfortunate for us that we didn’t get through or at least get to penalties.”
The young Imps side impressed Tillen on the night, he said: “The ability to compete against a men’s team is great.
“I think they showed that they could really handle the physicality, and they worked really hard- that’s always the question mark when you bring an under 18 side but a real takeaway from it is that they stood up to the task.”
Okewoye’s fantastic strike kept City in the game going into the final 20 minutes of the game, on his goal Tillen said: “He has the ability to do that, he’s a player that you want to get into the final third and give him the license to try and take people on and create.
“When he drove inside, especially on this pitch that was a bit bobbly and wet, he showed tremendous technique to curl it and it couldn’t have been a better shot.
“Credit to him, he’s definitely capable of that and hopefully he can get more of those.”
It was a penalty that ultimately knocked the Imps out of the tournament, with the referee pointing to the spot after a silly challenge from Charlie Carlisle. Tillen said: “It’s a challenge we didn’t really need to make.
“From a learning perspective we have to make sure we don’t put ourselves in a position where the referee has to make a decision.”
“It’ll be interesting to see it back to see if it was or wasn’t a penalty but its something we have to learn from as a group, sometimes you need those harsh lessons to learn from.”