Mark Kennedy pleased with Lincoln’s defensive display in shock win at Ipswich

Lincoln head coach Mark Kennedy praised his side’s defensive display following a shock 1-0 victory against high-flying Ipswich.

Kennedy felt that, although the Tractor Boys had the “lion’s share” of possession, his team showed a threat on the counter attack.

The only goal came in the 24th minute from Ben House following a corner. The ball initially hit the head of Regan Poole and went up in the air only to drop down for the City man to score.

Town had the chances to equalise with attack after attack but a goal failed to materialise.

Kennedy, a former Town player and under-21 coach at the club, said: “I thought defensively we were very good.

“Football is not about everything that you do on the ball, we will have good moments, we looked very dangerous on the counter attack.

“I thought Ipswich had the lion’s share of the match.

“In a bizarre way they (Lincoln) are an incredible group of players but they don’t believe that. Maybe that’s what you get with the youngest squad in the league.

“Every player to a man was awesome. Since I’ve been at the club I think the lads have been excellent and we have been growing slowly but surely. Where we are we think that we have been excellent and I’m really pleased with the guys and we have been excellent defensively.

“I was genuinely pleased we did not concede a goal and won the game.”

Meanwhile, philosophical Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna said his team did not start well enough and felt that the second half, when they dominated the game, was “disappointing” and “frustrating”.

Town had 76 per cent possession and 32 shots, five of which were on target, whereas the opposition only had three shots with two on target, but were unable to find the back of the net against a backs-to-the-wall defence.

McKenna said: “There is probably two different reflections. After their goal in the first half, and particularly in the second half, I thought we have done a lot of good things.

“In terms of how we chased the lead, we built pressure on their goal, created chances in all different ways, sustained pressure. I think if we play the second half 10 times over we score more than one goal.

“Frustrating in the second half and we missed chances that we shouldn’t miss.

“The first 23 minutes up until their goal is probably the period we can look back on a little bit and we did not start the game as we wanted.

“The main bit we can improve on is the start to the game and how we went about it.

“The second half was, of course, frustrating and disappointing but we have to move on from that.”