Mark Kennedy feels Cambridge defeat was a ‘wake-up call’ for Lincoln

Posted Sunday, September 04, 2022 by PA

Lincoln boss Mark Kennedy offered a stark warning to his squad after their 2-0 loss at Cambridge.

Joe Ironside scored twice in four first-half minutes to secure the points for the hosts, and despite Lincoln seeing much more of the ball after half time they struggled to offer a threat which might have denied Cambridge the victory.

Mark Bonner’s U’s have won all four of their home games in League One this season, the latest coming in the week that the club finalised the purchase to re-take ownership of their Abbey Stadium home.

“I thought we actually started quite well. We gave away two really soft goals. I didn’t think the game was dead and buried by any stretch of the imagination,” Kennedy reflected afterwards.

“The second half we started the way we should have in the first half. The first 20 minutes is what it should look like.

“I just think it’s a little bit of a wake-up call to some people, like a reality check. We’ve got a very young group and they have to know what an elite mentality looks like.

“We need the guys to understand you can’t just turn up on Saturday and think you’ve cracked it. That’s my worry with some of the players and you’ve seen it a little bit today.

“You don’t get a lifetime of chances in football, you get one or two, and when they’re gone they’re gone, you don’t get them back. Some of our players are quite naïve in what the game looks like.”

Mark Bonner praised his Cambridge side for the way they took their goals and then for limiting the number of chances their opponents were able to create.

“I thought we were very good in the first half,” he commented. “We had some really good attacking situations and we took the game in a five-minute period where we were very ruthless in our attacking play.

“It was a really good first-half performance, two excellent goals. In the second half we didn’t really carry much threat with the ball, however we never really felt under huge threat.

“In the end we’ve played 10 games in 36 days. The players get two days off now for the first time since we came back in June. I think they deserve it, they’ve been great. Four home wins in the league is a good start.”

On Ironside, who received a bloodied head in the early stages before going onto the score the goals, Bonner added: “It was never in doubt that he’d get straight up, get some stitches in his head at half time on the treatment bed and he rises like the Undertaker just before we came back out.”