Danny Cowley was disappointed after seeing his side lose to Wolves U21’s on penalties at Sincil Bank last night, but admits there are a number of pluses for The Imps despite his side now relying on others to see his side progress into the knockout stage of the Checkatrade Trophy.
Progession to the next stage is now hung on the result of the final group game going the way of Mansfield Town in 90 minutes against Scunthorpe Town but the permutations don’t end there.
“We were in and out of the competition more than the hokey cokey! In terms of the permutations, we are above Wolves on goals scored and have to await the result of the other remaining game. If Mansfield beat Scunthorpe in normal time we are through unless it’s a high scoring game, and then Scunthorpe would go through on goals scored. So, it’s out of our hands.”
Even if The Imps were to miss out on a place in the knockout stage, Cowley admitted there have already been plus points in this season’s Checkatrade campaign regardless of the outcome of the game between The Stags and The Iron.
“There are a lot of positives from the whole competition, Ellis Chapman has played 270 minutes in the competition which is good for him. He was maybe a little bit hesitant tonight after the sending off against Cambridge recently but you can understand that, and he’ll come out of that process a better player. I’ve no doubt he will do that and we got some good minutes in some of the players that are on the periphery (of the starting XI) which is important too.
He continued: “It was nice to see Greeny to get two goals, I thought him and Rheady were a real handful in the first half. I think we had fifteen turnovers in our attacking third in the first half and if we can do that regularly I know we will score goals.
"Ultimately, we had good control of the game but couldn’t find that final goal to win the game.”
Remember, City are back in cup action again this weekend as the magic of the FA Cup returns to Sincil Bank as Northampton Town travel to face The Imps, and tickets are available at the Sincil Bank ticket office and online by clicking HERE