Lincoln City welcome Crawley Town to the LNER Stadium on Tuesday night, as they look to bounce back from consecutive defeats.
Head coach Michael Skubala will hope his side can respond from Saturday’s 4-3 defeat to Barnsley, coming close to levelling the game after finding themselves 4-1 down following a poor showing for much of the afternoon.
The Imps’ recent run of form has almost completely tarnished fans dreams of a play-off run, having won only one of their last seven games, leaving them 13 points off Charlton Athletic in sixth spot.
Opposition: Crawley Town
The Red Devils currently find themselves 23rd in the league, six points from safety.
Crawley earned themselves an unlikely promotion into League One last year, finishing seventh in League Two, and beating MK Dons in the play-off semi-final before facing Crewe Alexandra in the final, winning 2-0.
Robert Elliot’s side have won one in their last five, including a loss to fellow strugglers Cambridge United last time out. In this tough run of form, Crawley did notably find themselves picking up a 1-1 draw with promotion hopefuls Wycombe Wanderers, having taken the lead after just five minutes.
Team News:
Sam Clucas did not feature for the Imps on Saturday through illness and may miss the fixture against Crawley for the same reason.
Lewis Montsma will be absent as the defender continues to play on a limited one match a week schedule, having returned from an ACL injury at the start of the season.
Tom Hamer made his return to Lincoln City’s squad at the weekend, playing the final 10 minutes of the match, and is likely to make an appearance.
As for Crawley, Ryan Sandford continues to miss out on action having suffered a tear to his ankle ligaments, with the goalkeeper expected to return between the sticks in the middle of April.
Defensive midfielder Bradley Ibrahim will have to be careful, needing just one more yellow card to rack up 10 for the season, resulting in a two-match ban. Imps captain Paudie O’Connor will serve the final match of his suspension against Town.
Head-to-Head:
The last time these two sides faced was in November, with a 4-3 win for Lincoln in the FA Cup second round.
In the league, Crawley ran out 3-0 winners thanks to goals from Will Swan, Ronan Darcy, and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy.
The two sides have only ever faced one another six times, with Crawley winning three, two Lincoln wins and one draw. That draw came in the first meeting between the two sides, in October 2017, finishing goalles.
Played for Both:
Tyreece John-Jules currently plays for Crawley as an attacking midfielder, appearing in 20 games for Town this season. While at Arsenal’s academy, an 18-year-old John-Jules signed for Lincoln City in the second half of the 2019/20 season. In that time, he played just seven games, netting once.
Lincoln’s January signing James Collins played for Crawley Town in the 2016/17 season. In 45 games for the Red Devils, Collins netted 20 times, before signing for Luton Town the following year.
Collins has already netted three times for Lincoln, against Peterborough United, Wigan Athletic and Leyton Orient.
Follow LincSport on X (formerly known as Twitter) for live updates and coverage of Lincoln City vs Crawley Town, on Tuesday, March 4.