Lambert’s Living In Cloud Cuckoo Land

I am sorry to have to say it but manager Paul Lambert is living in cloud cuckoo land if he thinks for one minute that we lost the game at Lincoln because of the referee. Toto Nsiala’s strength is also his weakness. His physicality is the reason why the Town defence can thwart so many attacks but it is also the reason why he gives so many needless penalties away. That is two in a week and before you say it was a harsh decision, ask yourself why did he have to make this challenge in the first place?

When he leaned heavily into Brennan Johnson by the touchline it gave the referee Kevin Johnson a decision to make and it was a decision that cost Town dearly, once he pointed to the spot. Toto did not need to do this because even if the player had got his cross over, there was only one player it could have fallen to and he was not in a very threatening position. You might argue that it was nothing more than an old fashioned shoulder charge but whatever, he showed his nativity by attempting it anyway; as we all know that any physical contact in the penalty area is open to scrutiny – with, or with VAR.

As for the Bishop incident that led to the goal, I am also not convinced that it was even a foul. Eden made contact with the ball as Bishop went tumbling but it could be argued that he should have been given a foul earlier in the move when he appeared to be shoved off the ball before he managed to get up again and continue to push forward.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines living in cloud cuckoo land as a state of an absurdly over-optimistic fantasy. That just about sums up Lambert’s reaction to the penalty and the incident that led to it. The gaffer explained his feelings afterwards when he said angrily, “There were two clear fouls on (Teddy) Bishop here, 100 per cent (prior to the penalty). There were some incredible decisions. I’m flabbergasted. It was dreadful. It’s professional football. That standard is not acceptable. We never lost to Lincoln, we lost to the guy in the middle but he gets in his nice car and drives away.”

The reason Town lost this one was not because of those late controversial decisions but because Town were toothless upfront. I know it is not Lambert’s fault that he is so desperately short of strikers right now but he did have Freddie Sears on the bench if he had chosen to use him, and although Oliver Hawkins ran his little socks off, apart from a long-range header that was cleared off the line, you could not call him a constant threat, and the same applied to all of our forward-thinking players.