After suffering the disappointment of having their last four games postponed, Lincoln City travel to Aldershot Town on Saturday, December 18th (kick-off 3.00pm) hoping to experience League Two action for the first time in three weeks.
The Imps haven’t played a league game since the 5-0 home defeat to Bury on November 23rd, and have seen fixtures against Cheltenham and Oxford called off because of the weather, as well as their FA Cup second round replay against Hereford, twice.
Speaking at Lincoln County Hospital after several of the Imps’ staff and players visited the children’s ward, manager Steve Tilson acknowledged that the past few weeks of training haven’t been ideal:
“We’ve been training inside sports halls and on the astroturf, so we’ve not had great preparation, but hopefully the players’ desire and commitment will get us through on Saturday.
Since their promotion back into the Football League two seasons ago, Aldershot have had edge over the Imps, winning three of the four games between the two sides, but after reaching the play-offs last season, the Shots have had a disappointing campaign so far, and currently find themselves just three points ahead of Lincoln in 18th place.
Tilson said that Saturday’s opponents won’t be a pushover, though:
“They’re in a situation where a couple of losses sends them probably below us, so they’ll be looking to get a positive result but we’ll be looking to get the same, so it should be a decent game.”
Long-term absentee Paul Green returned to training last week after a lengthy injury. The defender hasn’t featured since the 3-0 defeat away at Accrington on September 17th – a month before Tilson took charge of the club.
“I think there’s still some way to go with Paul,” admitted Tilson. “He’s been out a long time and probably needs another couple of games, but at the moment we haven’t got a lot of bodies, so he may well be involved on Saturday”
Clark Keltie and Andrew Hutchinson will definitely miss the trip down south, whilst Kern Miller could face a lengthy spell on the sidelines after the defender was left with a broken jaw following an incident in Blackpool.
The 19-year-old defender was admitted to a hospital in the Lancashire town in the early hours of Sunday morning, and had surgery in Preston, before being discharged on Monday morning.
“He’s in a bit of a poor state at the moment,” explained Tilson. “He needed a couple of plates put in, and fractured his jaw and his nose, but he’s out of hospital now and back home.”
Police in Blackpool are currently appealing for witnesses of the incident.