Michael Appleton heads in the upcoming season with unchanged expectations, despite an extraordinary year for the Imps.
Speaking to the press ahead of Lincoln’s season opener away at Gillingham, Appleton said ‘I could be very unpopular with what I’m about to say. Our target is exactly the same as it was at the start of last season. It’s to try and finish in the top half of the table.
What we did last year was get off to a good start which gave us the platform to massively overachieve.’
The Imps narrowly missed out on promotion to the championship after losing 2-1 to Blackpool in the play-off final, after spending a large proportion of the year in the automatic promotion places.
During the summer, Lincoln have brought in a number of reinforcements to replace players such as Brennan Johnson and Morgan Rogers who featured heavily last season.
Exciting young additions such as Dan Nlundulu, Lewis Fiorini and Lasse Sørensen have bolstered Appleton’s squad, as well as experienced striker Chris Maguire coming in.
Picture: Chris Vaughan Photography for Lincoln City FC
Date: July 23, 2021
Appleton stated ‘I think we’ve got a group that can be more adaptable, last year if certain players were missing in the team the drop off was too much. I just felt then we couldn’t compete with some of the bigger teams.
I felt like I didn’t have to make as many big decisions as I would’ve wanted to. Whether that was players getting injured or players not performing to a standard where they are making it difficult for the first team. We have got a group that are very fit, a young group that can get us through a stretch of the season up until we have a full-strength squad.’
The Imps boss confirmed however that Chris Maguire’s calf issue will put him out for another three weeks. As well as Dan Nlundulu who will not feature due to a hamstring issue he picked up during a pre-season game against Norwich. A setback that will put him out of the squad for the next few weeks.
Lewis Fiorini could be available for the Shrewsbury game, but Appleton assured the press that he will be in contention for selection next week against Fleetwood. With Joe Walsh possibly out till the middle of October the Imps manager expressed his admiration for the centre half describing him as ‘maybe one of the best left sided centre halves in the league.’
On the challenge of Gillingham, Appleton said ‘they are very hard to play against and the team is set up to make it very difficult for the opposition. You’ve got to play everybody at some point and I think the lads are ready for the game.’
The Kent-based side finished 10th in the league last season, only losing one out of the last five games. They will hope to capitalise on this momentum by getting a result against the Imps.
Lincoln’s captain Liam Bridcutt spoke with optimism about the upcoming season. He said ‘each season as a player you want the season to go better than it did previously. Our targets have not changed, every season we want to get better and do one better than last season.
For me it’s about consistency. The reason I’ve stayed at this level for as long as I have is the mentality of taking every game as it comes and trying to do the best in each game.