Lincoln City will be showing no mercy when National League strugglers Torquay United visit Sincil Bank on Saturday.
The cash-strapped Devon club are winless in nine games and find themselves in the relegation zone and the Imps’ goalkeeping coach David Preece says they must take full advantage of their opponent’s struggles.
“We can be sympathetic to their plight after the game. Until then, if someone’s down we’ve got to kick them, that’s just the nature of the game,” said Preece.
“Anybody at the bottom of the table has something to fight for and maybe they’ve got a different motivation to what we have but at the same time, we’ve got to make sure we start the game really well.”
“I think that’s the most important thing because games can be won in the first 20 minutes as long as we get off on the right foot and make sure we put pressure on them and make sure they don’t get any sort of encouragement at all.”
Whilst Lincoln’s early season form has been inconsistent, Preece remains confident that it’s only a matter of time before the team starts to string results together.
“We’ve got to make sure we keep doing what we’ve been doing in the last few games, putting lots of pressure on teams.”
“You’ve got to give credit to teams if they don’t crack but at the same time, if we keep doing those things right and keep being positive, the results will come and the goals will come.”
“Even though the wins aren’t coming consecutively, the performances are and as long as that keeps going, the results will come in the end.”
Lincoln will be without midfielder Matt Sparrow after he was stretchered off following a bad tackle in the 1-1 draw against Altrincham on Tuesday night. However, Preece said that the injury isn’t as severe as first feared.
“He’s not too bad this morning. We thought he might have been a bit worse than what he was but I don’t think we’ll see him for a few weeks yet.”
“It’s a blow losing Matt as he’s being playing really well but we’re not short of numbers in that area and we’re not short of players who are playing well.”