Danny Cowley unhappy with ‘disgraceful’ Lincoln display



Posted Sunday, February 25, 2018 by PA

Danny Cowley unhappy with ‘disgraceful’ Lincoln display

A shell-shocked Danny Cowley slammed Lincoln’s “disgraceful” performance and apologised to supporters following the Imps’ 4-1 defeat to Crewe.

Despite taking the lead through Michael Bostwick’s header 10 minutes before half-time, the Imps turned in a woeful display in front of another 8,000-plus crowd at Sincil Bank.

Harry Pickering levelled for the Alex on the stroke of half-time. Then two goals from Jordan Bowery, either side of Paul Green’s penalty, sent some home fans heading for the exit with still a quarter of the game left.

Cowley pulled no punches when he faced the media after the game.

“I thought it was a disgraceful performance from us,” said a dejected Cowley. “I feel disappointed and ashamed in equal measure. Ultimately, as manager, I have to take responsibility.

“On behalf of the team, I have to apologise to everyone associated with the football club. They deserve a lot better than that.”

Cowley was most dismayed about the lack of fight shown by his side.

“I’m pretty shell-shocked to be honest. I didn’t anticipate us playing as badly as we did,” added the Imps boss.

“I didn’t anticipate the lack of fight we showed. There was no intensity or purpose to our play.

“We managed to score a goal after a well-worked free-kick but we just gave foul after foul away. We came up short all the time.”

“We got out-fought which is probably what hurts the most. I’ve been a manager for 11 years, over 600 games, and that’s probably the worst performance from one of my teams.”

Crewe’s equaliser just before half-time could be seen as a turning point, but Cowley didn’t see it that way.

“I don’t think so. I don’t think we played very well in the first half,” he said.

“We came out for the second half and couldn’t even execute a simple kick-off, and the goals were terrible.

“What’s most disappointing was that we threw the towel in. That’s really painful for me to say but I have to be honest and we did. We all have to live with the consequences of that.”

Crewe boss David Artell was thrilled with the result, but not totally surprised.

“It was only a matter of time before we turned someone over convincingly,” he said.

“Today was the day. Everything they threw at us, we coped with. They had two shots, I can’t remember anything else. For how direct they are and how much they load it in the box, I can’t remember them threatening the goal, other than their goal and the Matt Rhead chance.

“In the second half, we had even more chances. It was thoroughly deserved.

“The first half was a non-event but Harry Pickering’s free-kick was one of the best of the day.”

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