Bristol City outfought by Lincoln in Carabao Cup Shock, putting pressure on Nigel Pearson
Lincoln City of League One were victorious against Championship side Bristol City in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night, upsetting The Robins at Ashton Gate
Mark Kennedy's Imps sucked the life out of the home team, capitalising on every mistake, just three days after suffering a cup shock themselves, losing in the FA Cup to Chippenham Town.
Paudie O’Connor’s header just after the break hurt the home side, extending their lead to 3-0, meaning a late Tommy Conway goal wasn’t enough to spring a comeback.
Lincoln move into the round of sixteen and will be looking to make a run similar to the one in the FA Cup in 2017, where they reached the last eight before losing to Arsenal.
Bristol City had the majority of the ball in the first few minutes but were quickly trailing due to a beautiful strike from Matty Virtue that seemed impossible for Stefan Bajic to stop.
The visitors then grew into the game more and looked the most likely to score next. After 15 minutes they were rewarded as Ben House doubled their lead.
House dispossessed Joe Low near the centre circle and twisted all the way into the Bristol City area to net home for the Imps, not the best of first starts' for the young defender and his goalkeeper, Bajic.
With a mountain to climb, Nigel Pearson's side came close after 23 minutes as a poorly cleared corner saw the ball land at Andreas Weimann's feet.
The Austrian international then found Chris Martin, who put through Antoine Semenyo with only the Lincoln goalkeeper Carl Rushworth to beat.
It looked easier to score than miss, but somehow the Ghanaian striker failed to hit the target.
A Low yellow card for a late tackle on Charles Vernam concluded the first half, with Lincoln City 2-0 up at the break and the much better side.
Pearson needed to be aggressive to start the second period, so he made three substitutions. Zak Vyner, Joe Williams, and Tommy Conway took the place of Low, Timm Klose, and Mark Sykes.
Any impact that those three changes would have made was lessened as Lincoln City soon extended their lead to three.
A deep free-kick conceded by Vyner was floated in by Vernam, bobbled around in the box, and cannoned off the post before O'Connor headed past a floor-ridden Bajic.
That was it unless Bristol City could convert possession into chances. Kennedy's Imps were proving incredibly difficult to break down.
Joe Williams had a couple of long-range efforts, both of which went just over the top of the bar before a breakthrough came in the 80th minute
Alex Scott located Conway, who fired directly at Rushworth. The ball then bounced back to the Scotland U21 international, who tapped it in with the outside of his foot, 1-3.
They nearly added a second after Conway's low cross on the counter found Chris Martin, who couldn't quite get to the far left post, inches away from what could have been an exciting final few minutes.
An excellent Lincoln City performance was perhaps overshadowed by an abysmal Bristol City one, the Imps going back to Sincil Bank 3-1 winners.
“Some players just didn’t turn up unfortunately
“It’s unfortunate when you make mistakes so I feel for Joe, but I don’t think he got a lot of help out there tonight
“We’ve got some big selection issues for the weekend now.”
If Bristol City fail to win against Watford on Saturday, the final game before the World Cup, Pearson will certainly be under pressure.
After sitting fourth in September, the Robins have won just two of their past twelve league games and currently sit 20th, three points above the relegation zone.