Mark Kennedy staying grounded after Lincoln’s flying start to the season

Posted Sunday, August 27, 2023 by PA

Lincoln boss Mark Kennedy was cautious about looking at the Sky Bet League One table after his side cruised to a 3-0 victory over 10-man Blackpool.

The win moved the Imps up to fourth and extended their unbeaten run to four.

“Where we are in the league at the moment is not important,” Kennedy said. “We spoke to the group after the game and told them to not get carried away and stay grounded.

“We don’t want to be fooling ourselves. We’re not a top-four team.”

The Imps scored twice from the penalty spot and saw another strike deflected home, and Kennedy said: “With the goals, we had three big chances and took them.

“Blackpool are a really good side with a good coaching group, so that is a big win for us in a big test.

“I thought we were really good in and out of possession. We looked structured and hard to break down. We controlled the ball. I thought we did that very well today.

“Before we went to Shrewsbury, a couple of our players were practicing penalties. I told Danny Mandroui that he was on penalties today, but we have three or four players who are really capable.

“I’m a big believer of driving at defenders, so it was nice to see Ethan Erhahon drive forward and pulling the trigger. I’d like to see him do that more often.”

Blackpool boss Neil Critchley was honest about his side’s performance.

“Horrible is the word that sums it up,” he said. “The initial start was good, we had two good chances before the first goal after seven minutes. That was a mistake from us.

“It was stupid of us to give away the penalty. We responded well, I thought. We still had chances to equalise before the second.

“Lincoln got a little bit of luck with the second goal. We didn’t get the press right and he shoots from outside the area. It takes a deflection and at half-time I’m scratching my head as to why we were 2-0 down.

“We changed our formation and players at half-time and we were threatening to get back into the game.”

Blackpool were down to 10 men with 17 minutes to play after Oliver Norburn brought down Ben House prior to Lincoln’s third, and Critchley believed it was the right decision.

“We didn’t defend well enough on the halfway line,” Critchley continued.

“The third goal and the sending-off kills the game. It looked horrible, it feels horrible, but it’s our first defeat of the season so I have to put it into perspective.”