Boss Paul Cook felt the 1-1 draw with Lincoln City was a small step forward the Blues with the result a fair one.

Cook cut a much more jovial figure after the game than he had been at Gillingham on Saturday and admitted that that wasn’t difficult.

“We only had to turn up to be happier than I was on Saturday, to get changed,” he said. “Saturday was a tough game for everyone, no one more than our fans, but I think even they know that was very unlike us.

“One of the things in general, if you have three or four wins in this division, like we had done, the reality is that you know a defeat is round the corner because teams are just not consistent.

“I don’t know why that is because consistency comes from selection, players, everything else.

“After equalising at Gillingham, we had a five-minute spell where we looked like we were going to win the game. But unfortunately, after we conceded that goal it was one-way traffic.

“But tonight, from the disappointment of conceding the goal, I thought we played well in the second half in a strange sort of way. We never dominated, created chances and had them cleared off the line.

“But we looked a good side, we looked a balanced team. I thought Dozzell and Flynn Downes, I thought Teddy Bishop was excellent before he went off. I thought we actually had people to speak about in a positive light and going forward that’s what we need, we want good players at this club.”

Lincoln were a threat down the wings in the first half but Town nullified that danger in the second period.

“They’ve got some good players, Morgan Rogers was excellent in the first half and sometimes you have to say well done to the opposition,” he added.

“We wanted to pose Lincoln a threat, we wanted to pose them a threat. I think Lincoln are very good sometimes at counter-attacking, sucking teams onto them, leaving gaps and hurting you with pace.

“I felt tonight our goalkeeper had a very quiet night, as did theirs by the way. I feel a draw’s a fair result.”

For the third game in a row the Blues fought back from a goal down, ultimately winning at Accrington a week ago, 2-1, losing 3-1 at Gillingham and then drawing tonight.

“You know yourself, for managers today with the way football is, you get judged very quickly, you don’t get honeymoon periods. Managers need time to breathe, you need transfer windows to try and be successful,” he said.

“In my opinion people demand change too quickly, I think sometimes to the detriment of clubs. Certainly going forward here, my talks with Lee and Marcus, we’re going to try and build a team and we’re going to try and build a football club that the town can be proud of.

“And that’s nothing to do with any other managers that have been here, that’s not being disrespectful. It’s our time at the club now. We made a small step tonight, and it’s a pleasing one because it was forward.”

Cook was pleased to open his points account in his second game: “I’m delighted with the first point. Even at the end of games, I’ve seen lose games and we would have been devastated if we’d have lost late on.

“Sometimes in your willingness to want to win, you leave big gaps and we’ve not worked long enough together yet to trust each other to do that, so I was quite pleased with the point in the end.”

Does he believe he has the players to create more of a goal threat? “Of course we have, sometimes we’ve too many players.

“The reality is that when you don’t get good results you just change teams,” he said. “And I’ve never been a chopper and changer, I think if people look back on my teams historically, I don’t use a lot of players because I trust the players I have.

“Here, it’s getting to know the players that I trust. Certainly if you look at the changes we made tonight, [Keanan] Bennetts, [Alan] Judge and [Troy] Parrott coming on, three good players coming on the pitch and we took three good players off, so in my opinion, the players are at the club.”

Cook teased the media by revealing he was set to start a player who hadn’t been in the 18 on Saturday with Jack Lankester turning out to be that man.

“We like a little bit of a game with the press!” he laughed. “It’s always disappointing when a manager’s lost his job because everyone’s got family and friends, it’s tough, but this dressing room that I’ve walked into is a very, very good dressing room.

“It’s a quiet dressing room, there’s a lot of young lads in it, but there are no bad eggs, and that’s a great credit to way the players have been assembled.”

The XI included none of the six loan players but Cook says that wasn’t a conscious move on his part.

“Honestly no,” he insisted. “For us going forward, it’s just about repetition. Josh Harrop started Saturday, so if that was the sort of decision I’d made, I wouldn’t have started Josh Harrop.

“I just want to get balance in the team. I love [getting it] wide and [getting] crosses in the box, I love full-backs penetrating. We want to see a really good brand of football don’t we, so we’ve got to keep tipping away.”

Lincoln manager Michael Appleton admitted he felt his side weren’t as good in the second half as they had been in the first.

“A little bit frustrated,” he told Lincolnshire Live. “I thought we performed really well in the first half.

“And I thought we defended reasonably well in the second half. We gave up a bit of territory and they had a lot of possession in front of us, but Alex [Palmer] never had a lot to do.

“The biggest disappointment is two things. One is the way we conceded. To concede a goal where we lose the first contact and then lose the second contact, that was a bit disappointing.

“And the turnover, when we won the ball back in the second half, there were far too many times when the ball went back into them and it was coming back again.

“No excuses. Our proper footballers in the team turned the ball over too easily in the second half and it cost us a couple of points potentially.”

However, he was pleased with the way his side reacted to the Blues’ equaliser: “We dealt with the disappointment, came back strongly and looked like the side that capable of winning it in the dying stages.

“We were a little bit more passive in the second half but in the last three or four minutes there was only going to be one winner. We were creating clean chances, so there’s a mixture of frustration and disappointment.

“But we’ll take the point and it will be a good point if we can get three points on Saturday [at home to Rochdale].

“If we can’t win against sides in and around us we have to make sure we don’t lose and they can’t make too much ground on us.”

Photo: TWTD

wkj added 21:59 - Mar 9 Still a lot of work to do, but 1-1 against a team that Lincoln have become was a good point earned. I do like Paul's comments about another step forward, and hope we come out like lions against Plymouth for our first win for Cook.
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sospier added 22:00 - Mar 9 Honest assessments and we move on to Saturday.Still 7th with games in hand.
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Norwichbeater added 22:10 - Mar 9 Need to start seeing change in tactics, formation and performance soon. One up front at this level appears to negative to me. Hopefully start to see improvements as each game passes.
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hoppy added 22:12 - Mar 9 “ Cook cut a much more jovial figure after the game”... as seen in the picture above...
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Pencilpete added 22:18 - Mar 9 Well anybody who thought Paul Cook was going to come in and wave a magic wand need a reality check. I'd say any shot at a play off place and possible promotion should be treated as a bonus right now and let the man use these games to see who he wants and who he doesn't then in the summer a complete rebuild .... not just of the team but the club (hopefully under new ownership) everyone has a clean slate and we have a proper go. If a play off place and promotion happens I'll be delighted I'm just not expecting it

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TractorRoyNo1 added 22:29 - Mar 9 A point against Lincoln is better than none against Gillingham and 1 against Northampton - but frankly we needed 3 in all those games.
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Edmundo added 22:35 - Mar 9 The most intriguing part of th his interview is the bit about "trusting each other", be interesting to see who he trusts. Also how he makes the team noisier: we need bigger characters; leaders though, not clowns.
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Kirbmeister added 22:47 - Mar 9 Norwichbeater - give him a chance, he's had two games in charge. Come back middle of next season and assess him then.
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PinstripeBlue added 23:12 - Mar 9 PC likes Norwood. I like Norwood. It is good to hear that he thinks the Towen are starving him of chances. I like that.
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Europablue added 23:29 - Mar 9 Edmundo I understood it as Paul Cook saying that because he hasn't had a chance to get to know the players he doesn't have the understanding built up between himself and among the players that would make him confident in risking the point for the three. The better you know your team, the better you can judge risk.
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Europablue added 23:32 - Mar 9 TractorRoyNo1 Yes, I think this was a good point, although after the equalizer I was hoping for three. Gillingham would have been an ok point and Northampton should have been three. Anyway, this isn't the game to point to looking for dropped points.
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PortmanTerrorist added 00:26 - Mar 10 Penetrating Full Backs is what I and so many have been screaming for....so does beg the question why Chambo is still playing there. Solid (League 1 standards) defending, but penetration? Give Kenlock credit again, as there is a guy clearly trying to do what the boss wants, and when he was barked at to get higher up the pitch, he did just that....suggests that was never the plan under previous managers. These guys need to all realise they are playing for their ITFC futures right now and take their chances when they come around.....we might actually be heading in the right direction and now is not the time to get left behind.

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dominiciawful added 03:19 - Mar 10 That was a refreshing read.
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filobiz added 04:02 - Mar 10 if you want a pentrating full-back look no further than KVY - poor guy i hope he gets fit and can get a few games this season. i thought he was terrific. COYB!!
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Saxonblue74 added 06:22 - Mar 10 Good,honest and refreshingly realistic interview. I find the negative comments from a few on here a little difficult to swallow right now, most coming from people who were suggesting we would get a thrashing last night. As difficult as it may be to be patient yet again I do see last night as a step in the right direction, particularly with regard to PC's team selection. In my opinion our best starting 11, perhaps with KVY and Woolfenden shoehorned in somehow.

4

brendenward35 added 07:05 - Mar 10 How many training sessions has PC really had? 2,3 at the most so how can anyone expect that team to be fully playing as PC wants them? He needs a summer to sort out the players and get the ones who will get us promoted. I personally enjoyed watching the match was concerned at half time as Lincoln were far better 1st half. But PC must have kicked a few backsides as much better 2nd half. Well done PC all the best for rest of the season.

4

Bazza8564 added 07:36 - Mar 10 Not our best but a game we would have lost a months ago. Biggest flaw for me still in the push on from the middle of midfield. If you go back to September and our winning run, the short passes in midfield were quick, had an element of forward drive in them and we played through people. Those same players are now static and going sideways or backwards. The run we went on before PL left featured a longer quicker ball into a front two and fight for a second ball. Frankly we need to be prepared to do both, but AD just looks unprepared to push forward quickly enough and every time like he did earlier. I liked Lanks back but he needs to play right, his passing will open teams up. Bennetts overplays. There are good players here, Wilson and Kenlock look they improve with every game, but there are harsh realities too. With our recruitment this season, all we've done is add more of the same, more for more's sake, and the lack of cash to invest and the restrictions of the salary cap have hurt. Our squad is too lacking in a star here or there and too big. One of the guys on the chatroom last night said 16 out 6 in for the summer squad changes. Not sure about the numbers but the ratio is probably what we need. All that is a tad negative, we can still challenge this season but it needs to start again Saturday. Lets pray it does, ITFC is bigger than league 1 :)

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Linkboy13 added 08:11 - Mar 10 Not sure if Cook believes we can gain promotion this season. I think he wants to have a good look at the players he's got that's why he took off Edwards and Bishop who were playing quite well and he's probably decided they are two players he would like to keep. Also he would not want to gain promotion to the championship completely unprepared and come straight back down after an embarrassing season. One thing is certain if we appointed another twenty managers we would not get promoted with this squad of players.

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RobITFC added 08:36 - Mar 10 We still do not have a formation that works, we do not get forward quick enough, too slow and laborius.... over to you Paul Cook and your coaching team, find that winning set up.
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johnwarksshorts added 08:49 - Mar 10 He's getting there slowly, we mustn't expect too much too soon from PC, it's a slow process, not only has he got to change the way we play but hes got to change the players mind set. I like what I see so far. COYB.
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Michael101 added 09:28 - Mar 10 Let's face facts Portman rd had become a toxic place to be.that will Not change overnight pc is going to be here for the long haul.
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LimerickTractorBoy added 09:48 - Mar 10 Linkboy/Brenden we are 1 point off 6th with a game in hand, I'd be seriously disappointed if Paul isn't targeting promotion via the playoffs at least, he has 15 games left to achieve this and have the team purring for those playoffs. PC seems like a breath of fresh air and a good fit for ITFC, think he will get us going, would like to see him sending 5 of the loanees back, keep Troy, if that is possible?

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RopeyAdvice added 09:53 - Mar 10 nice and refreshing how he speaks to the media. Acknowledges where we need to improve. Shame he hasn't got a proper chance to get too many training sessions under his belt but you've got to be fairly optimistic for the bigger timeframe
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ChrisFelix added 10:04 - Mar 10 Clearly Lambert bought in far too many loan players. Should have concentrated on one or two the quality of Lawrence or Garbutt. Top 6 is a real possibility, & lets hope that with change of manager our record against the top teams will improve. Assuming that 2 of Hull, Peterborough Sunderland get automatic promotion this leaves quite a challenge
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Linkboy13 added 10:53 - Mar 10 RobItfc Dosent matter what formation you try if you haven't got the players it's not going to work.
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