Lincoln City travel South-West for their final away game of the season, as they take on Cheltenham Town on Saturday, April 20.
Michael Skubala’s side recorded a 1-0 victory away to Oxford United in midweek, courtesy of a Daniel Mandroiu penalty early in the second-half. The win put them two points off the play-off spots.
A win against Cheltenham could move the Imps into the play-offs going into the final game of the season, if results fall their way.
Opposition: Cheltenham Town
The Robins currently sit in the the relegation zone, two points off safety with a game in hand. A 2-1 win against Burton Albion in midweek gave the hosts the chance to leapfrog them with a subsequent win against Lincoln.
The hosts have only scored 37 goals this season: only Burton Albion (36) and Shrewsbury Town (33) have scored less.
Team News:
The Imps will be without Reeco Hackett for their next game after he suffered a dislocated shoulder eight minutes into the clash with Oxford.
Skubala said: “[Reeco] went straight to the hospital with a dislocated shoulder. It’s one of those injuries where it could be really bad and season over…or it might be something we can manage until the end of the season.”
Dylan Duffy will also miss the trip this weekend, after being sent off during the week. Ted Bishop is “touch and go” for the trip to Cheltenham, leaving the visitors with further worries in midfield.
Head-To-Head:
The two sides have met on 26 occasions, with Cheltenham winning 11, and Lincoln winning nine. The sides have shared the spoils six times since the first meeting in 1998.
The Imps won 2-0 earlier this season at the LNER Stadium, with a brace from Lasse Sorensen securing all three points.
Lincoln come into the game with a strong run against the hosts, as Cheltenham’s last win against the Imps came back in 2017.
Featured for both:
Nomadic striker John Marquis had brief spells for both sides. Marquis was loaned out to Cheltenham in 2014, playing 16 games from August to November. More recently, he played 20 games for the Imps from January 2022 to July 2022, before moving to Bristol Rovers.
Current Bolton Wanderers forward, Dan Nlundulu, was loaned out to Lincoln for the first half of the 2021-2022 season, making 21 appearances for the side. He would finish the remainder of that season on loan at Cheltenham, along with another six-month spell at the start of the 2022-2023 season, making 31 appearances in all for the Robins.
Right-back Sean Long is a mainstay in the Cheltenham side, making 212 appearances since 2018 for the hosts. Long spent a season-and-a-half at Lincoln, from 2017-2018, making 42 appearances before moving directly to Cheltenham.