Was that just one of those days?

A frustrating day for Town as they succumbed to their first home defeat of the season. No major harm was done given they remain second in the table, but the gap to Sheffield Wednesday in third is down to one point. That is a little concerning considering our next game is on Sky and it's again one of the big guns in Derby County.

Ideally Town would have kept that four-point gap in place going into that game as you feel that is the one we would most likely slip up in and our second place would be consolidated.

Meanwhile, Plymouth continued their march, now gaining a four-point lead at the top. Town's aim has to be to reel them in.

At the end of the game it is easy to feel that Town were unlucky. 33 shots on goal, 14 corners and 76 per cent possession. On another day they won that game 4-0 or 5-0. However, we must consider how slow we were to get out of the traps.

For the second week in a row, Town did not come flying out as they have done previously. It has taken a goal from the opposition to kick us into gear. Against Morecambe, we had enough about us to turn it around. Against Lincoln we didn't.

There was a lot about the game that was positive and it just wasn't our day in front of goal, but we should not have put ourselves in a position where we were chasing the game and Lincoln had something to hold onto. Credit to their defensive performance, they put their bodies on the line for a huge three points for them.

They only had the opportunity to do that after some lacklustre defending from a set piece which saw Ben House with a free header at the far post after the loose ball dropped from about 20 feet in the air. The Town defenders were watching and Janoi Donacien, who has largely been superb this season, left his man free at the post.

Town didn't learn from it either as House had a second opportunity from almost the same position, but thankfully directed his header off target.

Soon after the goal, Kieran McKenna got his team in a huddle during an injury break and Town were noticeably better after that point. Crosses came in, shots were fired in, but for a while nothing troubled the keeper.

Lee Evans, who was Town's best player by some margin, looped a free-kick against the crossbar, before Sam Morsy's late effort skimmed the outside of the post. That's five attempts against the woodwork in the last two games - maybe too many crossbar challenges going on in training!

However, Town only produced five shots on target from 32 - that is not a good enough return and is hopefully a one-off and not a return to seasons past.

Conor Chaplin and Marcus Harness, who have been brilliant for most of the season, haven't had their best couple of games in a Town shirt. As teams have looked to stop us playing, they have targeted our two number 10s and largely stopped them from getting the ball in and around the box. Both have great chances inside the area but fired weak efforts at goal. It is important for Town that these two find their form again.

Apart from the two errors, we were solid defensively and spent the majority of the second half camped inside the Lincoln half. They stood firm and despite us creating lots of shots it seemed inevitable the game was going to get away from us.

The big positive is that is was still a good performance for the most part. Going behind and chasing the match is something we need to cut out of our game quickly, but it wasn't a defeat from a poor Town performance. I would argue we were better this week that at Morecambe, where we did turn it around, but Lincoln were also a better opposition.

Next week, it's another dreaded Sky game. Derby County have had a slow start but will surely be up towards the top come the end of the season. It is a massive game for Town. We need to bounce back after defeat, as we did after Plymouth, and overturn our horrid record in front of the Sky cameras. Do that and we can quickly write off this game as a one-off bad day and continue onwards.

Derby will offer a different kind of game. They will try and attack us and not defend the game out, as the previous two teams have. That should give us the opportunity to impose our style on them. We will need to be at our best, but I am confident if we can find our shooting boots again, that we will pick up a much needed three points - and hopefully see Plymouth and Sheffield Wednesday stopped in their tracks too.

We have an EFL Trophy tie in the middle against Cambridge. I expect to see the likes of Cameron Humphreys, Kane Vincent-Young and Richard Keogh to get starts. Our back-up team is strong, so let's do the job, win the game and comfortably qualify for the next round.

Uppa Town

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