Lincoln and Charlton hit stalemate in goalless draw at Sincil Bank

Lincoln City and Charlton Athletic had to settle for a point each at Sincil Bank. Far from a classic, it was largely a story of how two defences held firm throughout the 90 minutes but truth be told, the nil-nil scoreline was largely down to a lack of quality in attacking areas from both sides.

Toying with the idea of going for a win, Charlie Kirk should have done better with a Charlton counterattack on 20 minutes. As the visitors broke from a Lincoln corner, they had a two on one situation but the winger’s pass to Jesurun Rak-Sakyi was a poor one that the onrushing Lincoln keeper Carl Rushworth was grateful to clear.

Miles Leaburn, son of former Charlton striker Carl, came closest to breaking the deadlock in the first half. The 18-year-old’s mobility got him clear of the Lincoln backline on 32 minutes but Rushworth denied his shot diving low to his left-hand side. The keeper didn’t quite get enough on the stop as the ball squeezed under his body and rolled towards the line. It took a strong reaction from Rushworth to claw the ball back as it threatened to cross the goal line.

New signing Danny Mandroiu, making his home debut, came closest for the Imps as a loose ball fell to him from Max Sanders’ corner. As the Irishman swivelled, his well-struck shot towards the right-hand bottom corner looked to be hitting the net until Joe Woolcott in the Charlton goal did exceptionally well to keep the score at 0-0.

In the second period, neither side created enough to grab a winner. Jack Diamond had a frustrating game on Lincoln’s left and was well-marshalled by full-back Mandela Egbo. The home side was guilty of giving the ball away in midfield on countless occasions and could not get their passing game sorted. Ben House blazed over for Lincoln with their best moment as the match wore on.

Charlton certainly played the better football but despite some promising link-up play, quality from good positions let them down at decisive points. When the opportunity did arise, Kirk should have done better with a headed chance at the far post, following good work from winger Rak-Sakyi but could only hit the side netting.

Arguably the highlight of the game was referee Robert Lewis having to go off injured in the first half to ironic jeers of ‘you’re not fit to referee’. Mark Kennedy added post-match, that the moment, had indirectly had an impact on his team.

 

“I thought he pulled his calf. And so that was disappointing. We’re just chatting about it and we thought it actually disrupted the game a little bit and had a little bit of a negative impact on us but fingers crossed he’s okay. I think he’s out for a couple of weeks.”

Regardless of the stalemate, it was a game in which both managers were glad to have taken a point and not lost the game given there was nothing between the two. Kennedy was pleased with the clean sheet given that Lincoln had conceded five goals in their last two league outings.

“We’ve got a clean sheet at home and I thought we looked like the team that was going to win the game against a good side with really good talent. We got beaten here last year and I never felt that today, if anything we were going to nick it ourselves.

“We have to look at the positives, you want to win as many home games as you can but if you can’t win it, you do not lose and I think the clean sheet was important.”

Ben Garner, who was subject to a section of booing from disgruntled Addicks fans at full-time, was satisfied with his team’s performance and questioned the criticism from the stands.

“We’ve had a go. Where we haven’t won games, we’re lacking a little bit of confidence in that final third. That’s all that was missing today. If we’re not good enough, if the application isn’t right then I hold my hands up. As per the first half last week. That deserved to be booed. That performance today didn’t deserve to be booed.”

“Defensively we were very good and thoroughly deserved the clean sheet, which is a positive. We haven’t had enough of what we’d want in terms of that. I thought we controlled long periods of the game. We had to play like the home team.

“They sat in a mid, low block. They try and frustrate you and counterattack. We really restricted them. JoJo (Wollacott) only had the one save to make. It would have been nice to create a little bit more and get the goals.”

Charlton entertain Exeter City on Tuesday night while the Imps travel up to Ipswich on Wednesday evening.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt

[columns]
[column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”609″ heading=”EFL” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column]
[column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”3055″ heading=”League One” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column]
[/columns]