Boss on Lincoln win
Manager John Still was pleased with the way his side bounced back from Saturday’s 5-1 defeat at Gateshead by beating Lincoln City 3-0 at Kenilworth Road.
Two goals in three minutes shortly before half-time got the Town on their way with Dave Martin opening the scoring with a fine shot from the edge of the box before Andre Gray doubled the lead when rounding the goalkeeper after Jonathan Smith’s pass.
Martin, who also had two goals disallowed, scored his second on 72 minutes to make it 3-0, and Still was happy with the reaction of his players following the disappointment at Carlisle three days before.
“Football is about highs and lows,” the manager told Hatters Player afterwards. “Sometimes things go against you, sometimes other teams can play better than you – it happens. Last season Manchester United lost 6-1 at home to Manchester City. That didn’t make them a bad team – it just made it a bad day.
“Gateshead was a bad day for us but the key is how you respond to losing. I can’t take away what happened on Saturday, that’s gone now. How you respond to disappointments is the making of the person – it shows people’s character.
“We got the win and it was a good win and a good performance. For me, the level of performance is always important to me.
“If he had drawn 0-0 and played like that I would have been happier than if we had won 3-0 and not played the way we did because it would have given a false impression. We played good football, moved the ball well and the balance of the team looked good.
“The formation was only a version of 4-4-2, with one player playing off another one [the returning Alex Lawless off Jon Shaw].
“As I’ve said before, I need to find out the capabilities of all the players. It’s a massive thing for me because I can’t afford to go into pre-season not knowing what the players can do.
“I always felt Alex could do that job and thought he could be good at it. It worked – but we might try it next week and it might not work for us.
“Overall, though, we looked solid at the back, the midfield dominated and the movement of the front players was very good.
“It was a pleasing performance but I won’t go overboard about it.”