Lincoln City 1-1 Southampton

Travelling to Lincoln on a Saturday lunchtime kickoff. The things we do. And for what? A 1-1 draw against a newly promoted side where we led, should have closed it out, and then watched a late header sail past everyone. Classic Saints, really.

For large stretches this looked like a professional away performance. Schlotterbeck was excellent — composed, dominant, the kind of defender who makes you wonder why we don’t just build everything around him and hope for the best. He was clearly the standout, and the player ratings from the Echo confirmed what anyone watching already knew. When he’s on it, he brings a calm to the backline that we desperately need elsewhere.

Welington gave us the lead in the 44th minute with an absolute screamer. From 30 yards, he sent the ball into the top corner for his first Southampton goal. That belongs in the goal-of-the-month conversation already. Whatever else we took from Lincoln, that strike deserves another watch.

We should have built on it. Scienza came agonisingly close with an effort that hit one post, struck the other and stayed out. Both posts and no goal. You could hardly ask him to get much closer, and it was a huge chance in a game Saints left far too finely balanced.

Lincoln are a decent side with good energy at home and a crowd that gets behind them in that compact little ground, but a team with our squad depth and supposed quality should have seen the lead through. Eckert talked afterwards about not being able to “grind out” the win. The frustration is that we were in a position to do exactly that.

Then Mikkel Ladefoged headed in late to equalise. Nathan Wood had only just come on and should have done better with his marking, staying tighter to the Lincoln man and making that header harder to win. Fresh legs are meant to help you protect a lead; Wood needed to get to grips with his man immediately. Lincoln deserve credit for keeping going, but from our perspective that was two points thrown away. Flynn Downes sounded frustrated in his post-match interview and I don’t blame him.

Look, it’s early September, it’s one point away from home, it’s not a disaster. But these are exactly the kind of fixtures you need to be winning if this season is going to go anywhere. Newly promoted Lincoln at their place, 10,758 in the ground, an early kick-off. Win that. We didn’t.