Mark Kennedy sat down with the press on Thursday to discuss injury news, Sheffield Wednesday, and how not to be beaten in key matches.
Tashan Oakley-Boothe’s injury was first on the agenda with the Imps head coach not sure on how long he will be out. He said: “he didn’t train today so we’ll know more about him hopefully by the end of the day, we kept him off his feet today so we don’t have a definitive answer.”
Apart from that, there are no fresh injury concerns across the rest of the Imps squad with everybody “on track, with no set backs in that regard.”
Kennedy also recognised the change in formation adopted recently would have an impact on results too. He said “When I came to the club, I was worried how we would score goals. I thought I would make us hard to beat, so I was confident in the defensive side of things. The irony of it was we were scoring a lot of goals…but we were also conceding a lot of goals.
“I don’t think we are a team that’s going to beat somebody 4-3 and at the end of the day to win games of football you’ve got to be hard to beat.”
A near sell-out crowd is expected at Sincil Bank on Saturday when the Owls come to town, but Kennedy is keen not to play the occasion.
“I think we have to focus on the game first and foremost and influence what we can influence. I think the group have managed that really well this year. And it’s a learning curve for me as well, working with such a young group.
“I found it a very surreal experience as a new manager of going into a game and not knowing what’s going to happen. 10-15 minutes into the game we are absolutely fine.”
In comparison to Tuesday’s tie v Newcastle U21s, Kennedy said that the performance needed to be better to beat Sheffield Wednesday. He said: “I thought our decision making was poor on the night and it can happen on any given day. We made what was a comfortable win overall a lot tougher than it should have been.”
Lincoln City host Sheffield Wednesday in front of a near sell-out Sincil Bank on Saturday, with Kick-off at 1pm. .