Danny Cowley warns champions Lincoln: We need to improve on finishing

Posted Sunday, April 28, 2019 by PA

Lincoln City manager Danny Cowley warned his players that they will have to improve on their finishing if they are going to make an impact in League One.

Play-off chasers Newport spoiled the Imps’ title celebrations with a 1-0 triumph at Rodney Parade.

Matty Dolan played an incisive pass into the path of Padraig Amond, who took the ball to the by-line and cut it back for Scot Bennett to rifle a powerful shot off the crossbar and in for an early lead.

Despite having numerous chances to pull level, the champions failed to find the net.

“We’ve been blunt in the last three games,” admitted the Imps manager. “I don’t just want to consolidate next year, I want to win football matches and to do that we’ll have to score more goals.

“We had chance one after the other but we couldn’t take any of them and that’s the frustrating thing for me.

“We have to be a lot better, we’re going into League One now but we’ve been blunt recently.

“We had scored in 28 games consecutively prior to this run but we have to be better if we’re going to be competitive.

“Credit to Newport, Mike Flynn has done a great job and if they win their game on Tuesday, it will be in their hands, and no one will want to play them in the play-offs – that’s for sure – because this is a really tough place to come.

“It was a terrible goal to concede, I was disappointed with how easy it was. They got into our right channel, we didn’t stop the cross and then didn’t go with our midfield runner.”

Newport made it eight games unbeaten with six clean sheets to keep their play-off fate in their own hands ahead of Tuesday night’s game against Oldham.

Boss Michael Flynn has urged his side not to leave anything to chance.

“We want to take it down to the wire and to do that we have to win on Tuesday night,” he said. “If we keep winning, we’ll be in there so fingers crossed, we can do it.

“We’re hitting form at the right time but Tuesday is a completely different game and it’s going to be tough.

“It was a great effort from the lads and we just need to do it two more times now.

“It’s a vital victory, it’s in our hands and we just have to take care of ourselves, we don’t want to be reliant on other people.

“Scot had a bit of stick, he was due a goal, so I’m delighted he’s popped up with it, he was excellent as was everyone else.

“We’re racking up all these stats. It’s nice to be remembered for some good ones like the clean sheets, it’s going well but there’s still a long way to go.”