Gary Horgan hails history-making Chippenham

Posted Sunday, November 06, 2022 by PA

Gary Horgan hailed history-making Chippenham for sticking to the script to beat Lincoln 1-0 in the FA Cup.

The sixth-tier Bluebirds bagged two firsts, reaching the second round proper and beating English Football League opposition for the first time in the club’s history courtesy of a deft backheel from Joe Hanks a minute before half-time.

Hanks’ ingenuity came after a throw-in from the right had been flicked on by Will Richards, warranting the lead at half-time after the hosts had calmly soaked up pressure, lying in wait to break with purpose.

While the League One Imps changed shape and upped the ante in the second half, hitting the bar through Teddy Bishop and having a Max Sanders goal ruled out for a foul, Chippenham stood firm and had little to deal with in the final quarter of an hour.

Chippenham boss Horgan said: “We were quite good in the first half, it took them nearly half an hour to have their first shot and we definitely had the bigger moments, three really good chances before we scored.

“You think you may have lost your opportunity but we got the goal and defended really well in the second half. We had to but I thought that was due to having frustrated them enough in the first to start to go long, which we dealt with.

“Of course we needed a bit of luck, as you do if you are a non-league team at this stage of the FA Cup.”

Hanks might have scored two minutes before his moment of magic but had his low shot pushed around the far post by Lincoln keeper Jordan Wright.

Bishop’s thumped header hit the woodwork via the gloves of Chippenham keeper Will Henry three minutes after the interval and the Lincoln frontrunner also cushioned wide a loose ball at the far post just before the hour mark.

Substitute Matty Virtue was denied at the near post by Henry and had a penalty shout waved away when pursuing the rebound before Regan Poole’s thumped header was pushed over by Henry with 13 minutes left, the last big moment the visitors had.

Lincoln boss Mark Kennedy admitted his side were “too passive and too friendly” in the first half but was aggrieved over City’s disallowed goal.

“The second half was completely different,” he said. “We had a perfectly good goal disallowed, we are really disappointed in that.

“We don’t want to blame anyone else but the lad tried to head the ball from two feet off the floor, Matty (Virtue) has not touched him, Max has put it in the back of the net and I thought the ref made a really poor decision.

“There was enough time left to win the game so no excuses, it was not the referee’s fault.”