Lincoln City will travel to Buckinghamshire on Saturday, October 30th, when they face free-scoring Wycombe Wanderers.
The Imps’ manager, Steve Tilson, will be tackling his first game in charge of the team away from Sincil Bank.
City come off the back of a 0-0 draw with Stockport County last weekend knowing there will be two new faces in the squad.
Loan signings Luke Howell and Josh Gowling have both been shipped in on one-month loans by Tilson in an attempt to strengthen the team and get them back into winning ways.
The manager might also bring in a new striker before the trip to Wycombe as he insists goal scoring remains a problem for his team.
He said: “What I wanted from last Saturday, they achieved apart from putting the ball in the back of the net. At the moment, that is the missing ingredient and it is something that we will have to work on.
“I think we can improve on what we’ve got but we need to score more goals. We may have to look at bringing someone in. Everyone is looking for a goal scorer so it’s not going to be easy — especially on the money that we can offer”.
When talking about new signing Howell, Tilson said he looked at the attacking potential that the MK Dons man offers the team.
He said: “He’s decent on the ball, good creativity and he will pop up in the box which is why we brought him in. He might just add something when we’re going forward.”
The player added that he is happy to be at Lincoln after being frustrated by only making four starts for Milton Keynes Dons so far this season. Howell said: “As soon as I heard about the opportunity, I was desperate to get up here as soon as possible. It was disappointing for me as I didn’t get the chances at MK [Dons] so hopefully I can get in some games and show what I can do up here.”
Apart from the two new signings, Tilson confirmed that he also has two players available for selection after long lay-offs with injuries, although neither Paul Green nor Andy Hutchinson is expected to make the trip to the Chairboys at the weekend.
“Andy has been out for five to six weeks so he needs to get some reserve game time certainly before we can even contemplate putting him on the bench. Paul Green, hopefully, I have been told will be two to three weeks [before he is match-fit].”
Wycombe Wonderers are in free scoring form currently after scoring 13 goals in their last five league games – almost double the amount scored by the Imps all season. This run has left them inside the elusive play-off places.
Gary Waddock’s men have are on a run of five wins in their last six games and the City defence will have the task of stopping a rampant Wycombe side who have a former Imps player amongst them in the form of Gareth Ainsworth.
The Imps’ trip to Adams Park will test whether or not they have become more solid at the back this weekend, as well as Tilson’s mantra of playing ‘nice, attacking football’.
The unity and team spirit that was shown during this week’s open training session needs to be transferred onto the pitch if they want to avoid a defeat to a team that, on paper, would be considered favourites.
The Linc prediction: Wycombe 1 Imps 1