Lincoln City welcome fellow mid-table side Bristol Rovers to the LNER Stadium on Saturday as they hope to record successive home wins.
Last time out, the Imps fought hard against table-toppers Birmingham City to come out of the game with a 1-0 loss away from home to the league’s best defence.
“I think a draw was a fair result, I don’t think they had enough to break us down, I’m really proud of the lads,” Michael Skubala said.
The Lincoln head coach will be hoping that his side can build momentum against a Bristol Rovers side that sit below them in the table, but come into this one on the back of a few impressive results.
Opposition: Bristol Rovers
The Gas brought in current manager Inigo Calderon on Boxing Day last year after former defender Matt Taylor was sacked ten days prior.
Rovers had only won six out of their 19 games before that point this season, with Calderon achieving the same feat 15 games into his reign.
They now come into this game unbeaten in their last three having taken two wins against play-off pushing Bolton Wanderers and Huddersfield Town. Both of which came after being held to a stalemate by bottom side Shrewsbury Town.
That is a run that has taken them nine points clear of the drop zone, leapfrogging three sides to now find themselves in 17th position and just four points behind the Imps in mid-table.
Team News:
In what has become something of a rarity this season, Skubala has no new injuries to report for this clash with Bailey Cadamarteri, Erik Ring and George Wickens recently returning.
The Lincoln boss said: “We’ve got a couple of knocks, that the lads have picked up in training, so they’ll need assessing and we’ll see how they are in the coming days.”
However, winger Jack Moylan and midfielder Ethan Erhahon both remain out for the foreseeable future with their long-term injuries.
Skubala faces a welcome headache in the centre-back position going into this one with both Lewis Montsma and captain Paudie O’Connor in contention.
The Imps head coach did admit that he “needs to be careful” with Tom Hamer having started just six times all season, in between times on injury list. He also said that the decrease in the number of midweek fixtures helps with this and the chances of introducing some consistency in his selections.
Head-to-Head:
The Imps were held to a 1-1 draw when the two sides faced off at the Memorial Stadium in November when Jack Moylan cancelled out Shaqai Forde’s left footed strike 35 minutes in.
Before that, the last time the two sides came head-to-head at Sincil Bank, City came out 5-0 winners as Skubala’s side pushed towards the play-off places last season. That was one of 20 wins for Lincoln City against the Gas with Bristol Rovers bouncing back with 19 victories of their own overall.
Since the first meeting in 1953 the two sides have also drawn 11 times.
Played for Both:
Rovers’ goalkeeper Josh Griffiths, currently on loan from West Bromwich Albion, had a spell at the Imps during the 2021/22 season, making 35 appearances.
Others to have appeared for both include Lee Thorpe, who was in the southwest in 1997 and went on to make 233 appearances for the Imps, scoring 67 times.
Follow LincSport on X (formerly known as Twitter) for live updates and coverage of Lincoln City vs Bristol Rovers, on Saturday, March 14.