Danny Cowley impressed by Lincoln’s fighting spirit

Posted Sunday, December 30, 2018 by PA

Lincoln boss Danny Cowley praised his side’s resilience after their win at Cambridge.

The Imps went six points clear at the top of League Two with a 2-1 success, having been outplayed in the first half and trailing to Jabo Ibehre’s header.

It took a superb Neal Eardley free-kick to bring the scores level 20 minutes from the end before John Akinde struck the winner five minutes later.

“We weren’t at our best but we found a way,” Cowley said.

“I have to credit the boys; we were disappointed with ourselves on Boxing Day and didn’t get to our levels in terms of our performance or the values that we hold so dear to our group.

“Resilience, grit, determination. We didn’t have those but we had them in abundance today and managed to find a way.

“Harry Anderson epitomised the DNA that we have at the football club, the never-say-die attitude and work ethic.

“He’s a young winger who gets however many stitches in his head from a head collision and then gets up, draws the foul for the first goal, and he had a terrific game.

“Grant Smith did great for us, made a brilliant save at the end which you need your goalkeepers to do, and obviously the game changed for us on a moment of brilliance from Neal Eardley.

“Credit to Cambridge. We started well and had good control as the away team, then they caught us on the break and scored. They’re having a real go for their manager, we saw that in the Crawley game.

“They were very committed in their performance. It was a good performance by them and we had to dig really deep today and I’m proud of the boys for their efforts.

“You often have to grit it out and that’s what we had to do today.”

Cambridge head coach Colin Calderwood saw plenty of positives in his side’s display, but called on the team to turn the performances into good results.

Asked if his side deserved something from the game, Calderwood said: “Maybe, but we didn’t get it so we’re not going to congratulate ourselves on getting beaten again.

“I said to the boys in there afterwards that what I saw today I quite like. I know we lost and results are all-important but that gives us a foundation. If I didn’t like what I see I would tell them. What they gave me I enjoyed. We obviously hate losing.

“We’ve got to repeat efforts and really be tidier and do little bits and pieces better. We didn’t get the result, it’s up for other people to judge whether we deserved a bit more.

“We lost a little bit of a scrap. You don’t win everything, you can’t have the ball all of the time but in those moments, and two moments that led to the goals, I can see faults.

“I can see where we can adjust and be better. Some of that is technical stuff and some of it is tactical nous.”