PhilipH51
Schoolboy
I saw Lincoln play at Ilkeston yesterday - comfortable 4-0 winners - Laurent not included as he had taken a knock in training but Nicolau played the first half. I was really impressed by the way Tilly's new team played as a unit and it was amazing that they showed such understanding after no more than weeks and actually just a few days together in some cases. Ilkeston are building the new team on the second year academy lads who won their league and cup last season after the old club was liquidated, so can't be expected to hold a team three divisions up. They were unlucky in that the crucial early second goal came from a long pass immediately after both ref and linesman had managed to ignore a very obvious foul on an Ilkeston player going forward in the Lincoln half. (Kevin Wilson is always amazing entertaining in his 'dialogue' with officials, incidentally).
But on the basis of this performance, which included some fairly lethal finishing, I would hope Lincoln could challenge in the conference. They are very much a positive Tilson team, well organised, pacy but not frenetic, always looking up at the range of possibilities, ball on the ground almost the entire time and always someone moving into space for the quick easy pass. In terms of style they reminded me of the double promotion winning Blues team. In the second half they were coasting, dominating possession and Ilkeston heads were very much down - they're not used to losing, ironically.
Tilly had a long chat with Basildon boy Darren Caskey (Ilkeston's asst manager) at half time - seemed so funny up here to have Essex accents on both sides. He also signed a cult zeros t-shirt with a vague likeness of his face on it for me at the end. I said I thought he was putting together a pretty good team and he just smiled and said 'we're trying'. Of course I told him most Southend fans want Lincoln to win the conference - but I think he already knows that!
But on the basis of this performance, which included some fairly lethal finishing, I would hope Lincoln could challenge in the conference. They are very much a positive Tilson team, well organised, pacy but not frenetic, always looking up at the range of possibilities, ball on the ground almost the entire time and always someone moving into space for the quick easy pass. In terms of style they reminded me of the double promotion winning Blues team. In the second half they were coasting, dominating possession and Ilkeston heads were very much down - they're not used to losing, ironically.
Tilly had a long chat with Basildon boy Darren Caskey (Ilkeston's asst manager) at half time - seemed so funny up here to have Essex accents on both sides. He also signed a cult zeros t-shirt with a vague likeness of his face on it for me at the end. I said I thought he was putting together a pretty good team and he just smiled and said 'we're trying'. Of course I told him most Southend fans want Lincoln to win the conference - but I think he already knows that!
