Hit for six when two men down, Lincoln City were outplayed and outgunned by West Ham on a night that head coach Tom Shaw described as a "brutal experience" for the Imps. Yet Shaw, who shares his role as Lincoln boss with Chris Cohen, defiantly says they will not be defined by the horror defeat inflicted by a Hammers side who were playing Premier League football just five months ago.
Two red cards in the opening 23 minutes, with Tom Hamer's dismissal after 160 seconds followed by Conor Mc Grandles' sending-off, left Lincoln, a club with one of the smallest budgets in the Championship, facing what Shaw called an "impossible situation" against the favourites for promotion. It took until the 45th minute for Konstantinos Mavropanos to break the deadlock, but a five-goal avalanche followed after the break, with Edvin Austbo, Jarrod Bowen and Pablo netting before Tomas Soucek completed the 6-0 win with a late double.
"In a weird way I think our boys will come out a little bit stronger from going to the dark moments and the dark place they've had to when being two men down against that quality," Shaw told BBC Sport. "In the unique situation, I don't think it affects stuff and it won't define anything."
The gulf between the clubs is vast. West Ham took a squad that cost more than £200m to Lincolnshire, and starter Max Kilman's £40m move from Wolves in 2024 cost more than four times the total Lincoln have spent on players in their 142-year existence. Asked whether this made Lincoln underdogs in the second tier, Shaw said it was a tag they were eager to shake off. "We don't want to feel like that any more," he said. "We want to take the game to some of these teams."
Source: BBC Sport Football · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing