Cowley praises resilience of injury-plagued Lincoln after play-off draw

Posted Sunday, May 13, 2018 by PA

Danny Cowley hailed his walking wounded after Lincoln’s goalless first-leg draw with Exeter in their League Two play-off semi-final.

The sides will go into the second leg in Devon on Thursday still level after a tight and tense game at Sincil Bank.

And Cowley is hopeful his side will be in a stronger position for the second leg after being hindered by injuries in recent weeks.

Key players Michael Bostwick and Neal Eardley played despite being well short of full fitness, while Sam Habergham and Lee Frecklington were sidelined.

“We’ve had to come through a lot in the last three weeks in terms of injuries. We’ve really struggled with the balance in our team,” said Cowley.

“Neal Eardley and Michael Bostwick wouldn’t have been more than 75 per cent fit. The fact they were willing to put the team before themselves and come through as well as they did shows what they’re all about.

“We’ll hopefully get one or two back [for the second leg], which will give us more balance and get Bozzy [Bostwick] and Eards [Eardley] in a better condition. But we’ve also picked up one or two more injuries.”

Cowley was not surprised by the closeness of the game.

“It was a very tight game between two good teams,” added Cowley. “They probably edged the first half and we definitely had the better of the second half. We played with a lot more purpose and intent in the second half.

“We knew where we were at physically and knew there would be a ceiling in terms of our performance levels given the injuries we’ve had.”

Exeter boss Paul Tisdale shared Cowley’s view of the game.

“I think we probably edged the first half,” said Tisdale. “It was two very different teams. You can’t stop everything they do and they can’t stop what we do. You have to believe in your own game and we had that flow in the first half.

“They responded in the second half. Were we surprised? No, but we held out and kept a good line – it was a really good game, albeit 0-0.

“It was amazing it finished 0-0 with the amount of chances out there.

“We both respected each other enough to make sure we didn’t allow the opposition too much opportunity and we both gave it our best shot.

“It will be a very different game at St James Park on Thursday. I think they’ll fancy themselves and so will we. We know more about each other than we did 24 hours ago.

“That’s the delight in the play-offs, you play each other in such a short period of time.”