As for today's game against Fleetwood, I wasn't able to call on Russell in any way—not even for a spot on the bench. Park wasn't up to a starting berth, either. I settled for deploying the same formation and personnel that got us through the last match after Ansah's injury; Shuker switched to the left flank, Koroma dropped to the right wing (with an inside forward role), and Rodney came in up front. I prayed that would get us through against capable but out-of-form opposition.
The opening 15 minutes were a nervous affair, with both sides snatching at half chances and giving the ball away needlessly. Worryingly for me, Fleetwood looked dangerous. Although it was our boy Barnes-Homer who had the first real opportunity to score. He got in behind the defence for a one-on-one with the keeper, but Davies came off his line quickly and the striker's indecisiveness gave the Fleetwood defenders time to regroup for an important tackle.
Barnes-Homer got another chance a few minutes later, and this time he was clinical. The striker danced into the opposition's penalty area and seemed to take everyone by surprise. From a tight angle, it should have been a difficult chance to convert, but Fleetwood's defenders were stuck on their heels and their keeper much too slow to register the danger. Barnes-Homer slotted the ball home effortlessly. One-nil after 28 minutes. He's in a rich-vein of form at the moment—I hope these wonder runs can continue.
The remainder of the second half passed by with little of note. Fleetwood were a mess, but nonetheless threatening, while we wanted to make sure we didn't concede just before the break.
Richardson replaced Power on 52 minutes. I hoped he would add both energy and steel to our midfield. Then Nutter, who'd been disappointing, made way for Park around the 60-minute mark. I was forced to use our third substitution a few minutes later, when Christophe went down injured. Robson came on, and I shuffled the pack. Koroma moved inside, just behind the strikers; Bore moved up to right midfield; and Richardson dropped into a defensive midfield role, protecting the defence.
Shuker put a free kick mere inches over the bar in the 72nd minute; I wanted a second goal. We should have had it on 76 minutes, when Koroma played Rodney through on goal. The young striker took too long, however, and was tackled. Then Gowling hit the bar with a header from the resulting corner.
Barnes-Homer continued to threaten, going close twice more in the next ten minutes. It wasn't quite all Lincoln—Fleetwood scraped together a few set piece chances—but my boys were dominant. I thought perhaps we deserved a second goal, but 1-0 is how it stayed. Barnes-Homer picked up man of the match; he was really the only stand-out performer for either side.
The verdict on Christophe is bad. He injured his hip. I had to choose between sending him to a specialist, at a cost of £500, for a three-month layoff, or let the physio treat him for a six-to-seven-month spell on the sidelines. He earns more than that in a week, so it was a no-brainer. We'll be reliant on loan players in the ball-winning midfield role for the next few months.
In a nice change of pace, Fleetwood manager Micky Mellon (I can't be the only one who finds his name funny) praised me for my tactical choices in today's game. Looking at how things played out, I'd agree—I got the big tactical decisions right.
Our attendance, in case you were wondering, passed the 2,000 mark—but not by much. 2,172 people showed up to watch the game (approximately one-fifth of the full stadium capacity). These low attendances are not doing our finances any favours.
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