Danny Cowley praises Lincoln for gritty narrow win at Stevenage

Posted Sunday, December 09, 2018 by PA

Danny Cowley believes Lincoln’s gritty 1-0 win at Stevenage could be one of the most important victories of the season after John Akinde’s early penalty proved enough to secure maximum points.

Akinde was bundled over in the box just 11 minutes in and confidently dispatched the resulting spot-kick to give the Imps a dream start.

Lincoln spent much of the rest of the match on the backfoot against Dino Maamria’s men and Cowley believes that dogged spirit will make a big difference come the end of the season.

“These are the games you need to win to do well in the league,” he said.

“These 1-0 wins in blustery conditions on cold December days are the games that define your season.

“It’s a great win for us away from home. It was a real team effort. The conditions made it really difficult but we worked really hard.

“Colchester and MK Dons, who are our rivals, have come here and lost so for us to come here and pick up three points is an important win.

“I thought (goalkeeper) Grant (Smith) was tremendous today. He’s a young boy who has done really well. He’s just come out of non-league football.

“For him to come out and play with the conviction he did is testament to his character and I’m really proud of him.

“Every says John (Akinde) only scores penalties, but he wins them as well doesn’t he? That’s what I mean about it being a team effort. They’ve all performed really well.”

Following Akinde’s sixth goal of the season, Lincoln relied on goalkeeper Grant Smith to preserve the points and luckily for them he was in top form.

The shot-stopper kept out Ben Kennedy’s free-kick and two towering Scott Cuthbert headers, while Danny Newton blazed over the bar from close range.

But the best came at the death as Smith dived full length to tip Joel Byrom’s free-kick over the bar.

“We don’t like losing and I don’t think we got what we deserved,” Stevenage boss Maamria said.

“We were fantastic.

“I think after the first 15 minutes we were all over them. I’m really disappointed with the way we start games. I’m disappointed with my two centre-backs.

“One gives away a free-kick on one side and the other gives away a penalty on the other side.

“We spoke in the week about how good they are at earning free-kicks and penalties.

“That’s their fourth or fifth penalty I think and it was their only shot on target.

“I’m disappointed with Scott (Cuthbert) because we showed him videos and he got too close and he was always going to go down.

“We know Akinde will do that, go down easily. We know he will do that.”