‘I am NOT devastated’ – insists McGreal after win at Lincoln but missing out on play-offs

Brennan Dickenson celebrates putting the U's 1-0 up at Lincoln. Picture: PAGEPIX (Image: Pagepix Ltd 07976 935738)

The U’s produced a fantastic display to win at champions Lincoln City, but they ultimately missed out on the League Two play-offs in heartbreak fashion.

The U’s played out of their skins at Sincil Bank, easing to victory thanks to Brennan Dickenson’s opener and a brace from Sammie Szmodics, all in the first half.

And that left John McGreal’s men in the play-off zone, sitting in seventh spot, for most of the afternoon until Newport County netted a late equaliser at Morecambe to draw 1-1 and so pip the U’s to the final play-off berth.

“I am not devastated, far from it,” insisted McGreal.

“First and foremost, I want to talk about the performance because I thought it was outstanding.

“From the first kick, we were excellent. We have come to the top-of-the-league team and they’ve been booed off at half-time, which was a bit surreal.

“I never come across that before, a team who are champions being booed off at half-time. But that’s modern-day football – it can be very fickle.

“I thought we absolutely battered them, and we could have scored more than the three goals we scored in the first half, with Mikael (Mandron) also having a couple of shots.

“It was a great performance, but obviously results elsewhere did not help us with Newport’s late equaliser. That has really hurt us.

“We are gutted to miss out on the play-offs, that’s happened to me twice in the last three years now.

“It’s time to move on this summer, get transfers sorted out and chase some of our targets.

“I still think it’s been a fantastic season, breaking the 70 points barrier, getting 20 wins and keeping 19 clean-sheets,” added McGreal.