‘Dominant’: Joint Lincoln City manager makes surprise admission after Portsmouth defeat
Pompey fended off Championship new-boys Lincoln City to secure a 3-1 win at Sincil Bank on Saturday.
Lincoln City joint manager Tom Shaw believes the scoreline didn’t reflect the Imps’ ‘dominant’ performance against Pompey on Saturday.
And the head coach has conceded the Blues’ goals were preventable and has vouched for improvement as his side continue to adjust to Championship.
It could’ve been much different, however, when Ben House failed to take advantage of a one-on-one situation against Nicolas Schmid within five minutes after a defensive mix-up by the Blues.
But Pompey punished the Imps in quick succession soon after, with Ryan Kavuma-McQueen and Adrian Segecic firing the visitors ahead.
Although Reeco Hackett pulled a goal back on the half-hour mark, Ebou Adams secured the maximum points in the second half with a fierce 25-yard effort.
Indeed, Shaw, who is in joint charge alongside Chris Cohen, believes the scoreline didn’t reflect his side’s efforts, which condemned them to successive Championship defeats.
Join Lincoln boss’ Pompey verdict
Speaking to BBC Radio Lincolnshire, he said: ‘We’re disappointed with the result on what was a really big day for Lincoln City Football Club.
‘I thought we started the game superbly, we spent seven or eight minutes in and around their goal. There was a flurry of set-pieces, we looked like a real threat and then it was a real sucker punch.
‘We’re really annoyed because it’s so preventable. Arguably with the second goal (it’s preventable as well), if we do our work a little bit earlier. That knocked the window out of everyone’s sail a little bit.
‘Very pleased with how we responded at that point. Our front two caused loads of problems for them and we thought we’d get a big opportunity and we got a couple.
‘First half performance was positive, second half I felt from the dugout we petered out a little bit. We’ve got to create a little bit more volume around their goal.
‘We’re going to work on that every single day, every moment we’ll live it.
‘The Derby success, we were keeping people calm at that moment, it was a mixed bag at Middlesbrough and then it’s probably the same again today.
‘Dominant first half. We ended up 2-0 down at one point, which feels a little bit unjust at this moment but in the second half we’ve got to be better.
‘As an all round performance, what we’ve been made aware of there is that we’ve got to be better than that at this level to win consistently.
‘It’s going back to the training ground, sitting with the players, talk to the players, keep pushing everybody and we’ll get there.’
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