Team’s form is gift for birthday boy
IT WAS his 21st birthday on Thursday, it’s St Patrick’s Day today and Lincoln City are on a roll in League One – no wonder Sean Roughan is loving life right now!
The Irish centre-half has played his full part as the Imps have put together a great run under boss Michael Skubala. Heading into yesterday’s home clash against Bristol Rovers, Lincoln were unbeaten in 12 league games and just three points of the play-off places.
And they earned rave reviews with a thumping 5-1 win at promotion-chasing Barnsley last Saturday and a 6-0 midweek home romp against lowly Cambridge.
“They were good results against a very good Barnsley side and a Cambridge side with their own threats,” said Roughan pre-weekend. “However, we can’t get carried away. There are very good teams ahead of us and we’re just looking towards the next game.
“If it happens (that we reach the play-offs), then it will be a well done to all of us. We’ll see in eight games’ time.”
Freedom
The Dublin-born defender admitted he didn’t have big birthday plans – “it’s the life of a footballer with games coming thick and fast” – but he has certainly come of age in the Imps backline over the last couple of seasons. Forty appearances last season had been followed up by another 37 this term ahead of the Rovers clash. That’s no mean feat for a player so young.
“I’m really enjoying it,” he told The FLP. “I’m a left-sided centre-back given freedom to play. The manager is very good with his tactics. He’s really knowledgeable and the work he puts in on the training pitch is phenomenal.
“I’m getting better as the games and experiences go on. You have to live in the present and take it game by game because anything can happen in football.”
Few would have expected Lincoln to have gone on the charge they have after a winless ten-game spell in December and January, but Roughan believes the seeds were sown as they battled to three draws in the opening month of the year, including goalless home matches against high-
