Lincoln City look to tread familiar success on the road in their season opener at Gillingham

Lincoln City travel to the Priestfield Stadium to take on Steve Evans’ Gillingham in League One’s 2021/22 season opener.

Having finished fifth last season and coming agonisingly close to getting promoted, Michael Appleton’s Lincoln will be aiming to build, if not at least, mirror last season’s form. In particular, their performances on the road were an integral part of their success, picking up 13 wins from 23 games.

They were very much the team to beat until injuries derailed their progress towards the end of the campaign, and having lost influential players Brennan Johnson, Morgan Rogers and Jorge Grant, it may take some time to adapt to those key losses.

It has not been the easiest of pre-seasons with the shorter turnaround due to the play-offs and also having missed Appleton from duties whilst he took a short break for medical reasons. Having initially missed the first few weeks of pre-season due to a testicular cancer operation, the Lincoln manager is feeling a lot better.

“I’m doing very well. The operation was successful and I consider myself very lucky to have caught the problem at a very early stage. Hopefully it is all health with now and I can be one of the fortunate ones.”

As attention turned to the season’s curtain-raiser, Appleton reflected on his side’s preparations.

“It’s been tough both from what you can and can’t do on the training field. From a recruitment point of view obviously, you’re almost spinning plates at different stages because you don’t know which division you’re in.”

However, Lincoln appear to have been shrewd in the transfer market and have brought in many tried and tested performers at League One level and the addition of now customary loans of younger talents from the higher divisions.

The Imps could hand debuts to Lasse Sorenson, Ted Bishop and Hakeeb Adelakun, whilst Josh Griffiths will start on loan from West Brom.

“We’ve got a group that are very fit (injuries aside)….a young group. They need to get us through a certain amount of time at the start of the season; to then get to a point, maybe around October where we’ve got a fully strength squad fit and available. They’re more than capable of doing that”.

Lincoln will be without long term absentee Joe Walsh, and new signings Chris Maguire and Lewis Fiorini are both expected to be out for a few more weeks, having picked up injuries during season preparations.

Gillingham boss, Steve Evans, who had threatened to mastermind a late crash into the play-offs in the last campaign, was in bullish mood about the season ahead, beginning with their initial visitors.

“I see they are one of the early favourites for automatic promotion, that is how tough our challenge is, but what do you do when you face tough challenges? You get up and fight.”

Whilst the likes of Ipswich Town, Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday have been making headway with some relatively ‘big’ signings for the division this summer, Evans was quick to pull Lincoln into that pool of clubs also.

Speaking to local press, Evans couldn’t hide his envy as he talked up Lincoln’s finances and promotions chances, potentially playing down his side’s chances of picking up their first points of the season.

“They are a big-spending team now aren’t they? That is a reality. They can kibosh it under the carpet but they are. They have signed some wonderful players and they will make it really tough for us.”

Gillingham have had a quieter summer in the transfer market and have lost vital player Jordan Graham to Birmingham City, who weighed in with a number of assists from out wide. More encouragingly, however, they have managed to hold onto striker Vadaine Oliver who caught the eye with 16 league goals last time around.

The Gils could be without John Akinde, who limped off in their 5-0 midweek defeat to Premier League outfit Norwich City. Skipper Kyle Dempsey and Ben Reeves could return having missed their final friendly of pre-season. New boys Jamie Cumming, Rhys Bennett, and Daniel Phillips could all feature.

In last season’s fixtures between the sides, Lincoln put on a superb February display in front of the television cameras in beating the Gils 3-0 at Priestfields. In an impressive performance, Evans got his revenge in a 3-0 win at Sincil Bank the next month as their momentum gathered in the season.

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