Resurgent Lincoln City will be aiming for victory to add misery onto Bristol Rovers’ survival hopes

75 minutes into last Saturday’s fixture against fellow League One play-off contenders Blackpool, Lincoln City appeared in real danger of letting a season that had promised so much fall apart in front of their eyes.

Michael Appleton’s side found themselves 2-0 down to the Tangerines on the back of a run consisting of only two wins in their previous 12 games, as a lengthy injury list compounded by a Covid-19 outbreak among the players contributed to a slide down the league table.

However, goals in the final 15 minutes at Sincil Bank from Anthony Scully and Brennan Johnson rescued a late point for the Imps, and Tuesday’s thumping victory over MK Dons has rekindled belief that this season can end in promotion glory.

Lincoln had been top of the league at the end of January, and on course for a return to the second tier for the first time since the 1960’s thanks to some innovative work in the transfer market from Appleton and some excellent performances from a host of young loanees.

Attacking midfielder Johnson, a full Welsh international borrowed for the season from Nottingham Forest, scored an 11-minute hat-trick in the midweek win against MK to take his tally to 10 for the season, and all three goals were supplied by England youth international Morgan Rodgers – a temporary addition from Manchester City.

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While it may be too early to suggest that Lincoln have put their mid-season slump to bed entirely, these back-to-back positive results have opened up a four-point gap between themselves and the sides just outside the play-off places, with the Imps also having games in hand on a number of teams due to their Covid-enforced postponements.

They are still without creative midfielder Jorge Grant due to injury, and Adam Jackson, Joe Walsh and James Jones are all carrying knocks.

On Saturday, they travel to the West Country to take on a Bristol Rovers team that is equally in need of points in order to avoid their own end-of-season disappointment.

Joey Barton’s side find themselves in 22nd place in the League One table, three points from safety with just five games left to play.

Last weekend’s 1-1 draw at relegation rivals Northampton Town was by no means a fatal blow for their hopes of staying up, but the fact they gave away a controversial penalty in the last 15 minutes to throw away the lead meant it was a deflating afternoon for the Gas.

They have won just three of Barton’s 13 games in charge, and although the draw at Northampton ended a sequence of six defeats in a row on the road, a run-in that sees them take on promotion-chasing Portsmouth and Blackpool after Appleton’s Lincoln means they are getting to the stage where they need to pull some unexpected results out of the bag.

“We’re in a fight, you’ve known that before I even came into the football club.

“The table doesn’t lie after 41 games, and I knew the minute we were taking our position we were fighting for our lives and Saturday’s game was an opportunity for two more points, but if we had those points sitting here today we’d still be a point from safety due to other teams’ performances and results.

“You’ve got to expect teams down the bottom all to start winning. I’ve seen it over my career multiple times. Teams who are dead and buried are galvanised because of what’s at stake, and they pick up, and that’s got to be our challenge.”

– Bristol Rovers manager Joey Barton

The long-term absence of Scottish forward Sam Nicholson has severely limited their threat in front of goal and partially explains why it is left-back Luke Leahy who leads the Rovers’ scoring charts with eight goals.

They will also be without Alex Rodman, Josh Grant and Alfie Kilgour for Saturday’s game, with Barton forced to rely on the same group of players that have struggled in recent weeks.

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A crumb of comfort for Bristol Rovers will be that they did beat Lincoln at Sincil Bank back in October in the sides previous meeting this season, as second-half goals from Brandon Hanlan and James Daly secured Ben Garner what turned out to be his penultimate victory as manager of the Gas.

A repeat of that result could have massive implications on the relegation battle, however, this rejuvenated Lincoln side have their own targets to achieve and are therefore unlikely to roll over easily.

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