Exeter assistant manager Kevin Nicholson hailed striker Sam Nombe as his brace earned the Grecians a 2-1 win over Lincoln.
After Paudie O’Connor had put Lincoln in front, City’s top scorer reacted quickest to a wretched back pass from Sean Roughan to roll the ball into an empty net to bring his side level.
There was nothing fortunate about his winner, though, as he shrugged off a defender and despatched the ball with unerring accuracy for his 13th league goal of the campaign.
“We did a little debrief in the dressing room and realised he wasn’t here, so we decided he was probably in the heart of the Big Bank celebrating with the fans!” Nicholson joked.
“When he did come in, he came in smiling but apologising as he said he could have had five today.
“I think, when you look at his performances over the last two or three games, they have got steadily better and better.
“He was excellent last week and didn’t quite get the rewards, but today he did and his second goal today was a really, really good goal – simple, forward passes, two-touch and Sam shows that bit of individual brilliance to get there, dump the defender on the floor and his finish was excellent.
“He’s a big character and like all strikers, they thrive off scoring and go on those little runs and scoring becomes a bit easier for them. That comes from hard work and preparation and he’s been doing that. We have had some really good conversations with him and he has put some really hard work in.”
On the win, Nicholson said: “We got a bit of a Brucey bonus with the opening goal, it was brilliant by Nombs to be alert and ready and I thought we were maybe fortunate to be level at half-time.
“Second half, I thought we weren’t fantastic and not at the levels we showed against Wycombe and even Shrewsbury, games where we played well but didn’t win, but we kept going, we fashioned chances and got the win.”
Defeat ends a 10-match unbeaten run for the Imps and manager Mark Kennedy said: “Up until they scored, I thought we were outstanding. I was so happy and so impressed. We pressed them brilliantly, the game plan was excellent and it was executed brilliantly.
“Sam Nombe is very good, I like him. They had two shots on target and scored two goals, one of those came without a keeper in goal.
“What we did really well is that we got into good areas and got a lot of free-kicks. My criticism of us was our delivery of free-kicks was so bad today.
“I reflect on 35 games and we are 12th in the league which is really good. I am really disappointed we have lost the game but when I look at what we are achieving over 35 games, it is good.
“There are 11 games to go and we are looking up and we are in a really good place.”
