Lincoln City aim to keep up early season pressure on big spending Ipswich Town

Lincoln City entertain Paul Cook’s Ipswich Town at the LNER Stadium this weekend looking to build on a well-earned point from Tuesday evening’s draw against Rotherham United.

In a game that the Imps did well to salvage anything from against Paul Warne’s men, they were well below par on the evening in terms of their offensive capabilities and had Josh Griffiths to thank for an inspired goalkeeping display to keep the Millers ar Bay.

Lincoln struggled to carve out any clear cut openings aside from Lewis Fiorini’s well-taken goal on 56 minutes against the Millers and Michael Appleton will be looking for a similar reaction from his players that saw them cruise past Cambridge United last Saturday.

Chris Maguire, a summer arrival from Sunderland, struggled to exert any consistent influence despite him showing flashes of quality. The summer signing was instrumental in his side’s equaliser with an incisive return pass that allowed Fiorini to score.

Making his full debut for the Imps, it was clear that the 32-year-old is still getting up to speed in terms of fitness and match sharpness having missed a vital chunk of Lincoln’s pre-season preparations.

The Ipswich game will mark Michael Appleton’s 100th game in the Lincoln dugout, and considering the huge void left by the Cowley Brothers back in September 2019 after their tremendous success, he has done a fine job to this point. He fell just short of taking Lincoln into the Championship for the first time in their history but with developments behind the scenes at the club, he is very much looking forward to the future.

“I’m delighted with the way we’ve progressed as a club, if Lincoln City is mentioned around the country i’d like to think it’s as a young team who play good, progressive football and with a good model as a club.”

“I’ve got a genuine belief in what we do and how we do it, and there’s a togetherness in how we operate, but the league itself now is three or four times stronger than it’s ever been.

“I’m happy with the way we’ve progressed over the past two years or so, I want to be able to make sure we’re as competitive as we can be this year and when I look back over the next 100 games hopefully there are a few more good memories.”

Appleton has spoken about the need for greater options amongst his squad having fallen foul of cruel luck in the last campaign. There is no doubt that they now have greater options to deal with injuries but their continued run of poor luck with injuries seems to continue.

They look set to be without Conor McGrandles with a calf problem after he was withdrawn in the opening 45 minutes on Tuesday. The young Scotsman, who was starting to show that he was returning to the types of performances that Imps fans had become accustomed to last season, looked a frustrated figure as he headed straight down the tunnel. 

Fiorini, McGrandles’ replacement, did his favours of starting on Saturday absolutely no harm at all with another goal, his second in successive games from midfield. Lasse Sørensen also played a vital part in Lincoln’s goal from deep and he seems set to continue alongside skipper Liam Bridcutt to complete Imps’ midfield trio.

Former Ipswich and now Lincoln player, Teddy Bishop, who the Imps in the summer, will be rubbing his hands together at the prospect of appearing against his former club, whom he joined as a youngster. Bishop missed out on Tuesday due to a bout of illness but he has trained this week and will be looking to push for selection against his former club. 

Bishop reflected on his time at Portman Road and how he’s settled into life at Sincil Bank.

“I started last season really well. I was enjoying my football, playing well. Then I got an injury, came back into the side, and the team was struggling.

“Then the new manager came in, and a few weeks after that, it was quite apparent to me that I needed a new start as I didn’t fit into those sort of plans.

Since joining Lincoln, he has been buoyed on by his new manager to put his mark on games and attack the opposition.

“He gives me the freedom to go and play how I want to play with no restrictions. He knows I can run with the ball, but there’s a structure too. It’s not like ‘go and do whatever you want’.

“But he wants me to play off the cuff, be inventive and creative. It’s perfect for me.”

Paul Cook, in search of his first win of the season, will already be feeling the weight of expectations since joining the club. With the influx of almost an entirely new playing squad and celebrity sponsorship in the form of pop star Ed Sheeran, the objectives for the season are clear: promotion has to be the aim.

“We didn’t expect to go through this much pain, let’s have it right. We thought we’d be one of the forces in the league, right away, by the calibre of player that we’ve signed.

“Unfortunately, at times we’ve looked like individuals rather than a team. Good teams are not made up by good individual players. They have a collective bond. That collective bond is something we’re lacking at the minute, but it’s something that will be instilled in the team shortly.

“The reality is we need to get our best team on the pitch as quickly as we can and give those lads the continuity of playing together week-in, week-out.

“Partnerships will then grow and that we see us go to a place that I believe we will go.”

Sitting in the bottom three after six games was not in the script but looking to bounce back from a humiliating 5-2 home defeat to Bolton Wanderers, the Tractor Boys will have a large away following at Lincoln, selling out their allocation in the Stacey West Stand.

“Our fans are desperate for success for their football team and I’m desperate to deliver it for them.

“Any frustration has been fair – a hundred per cent. I’ve got no issue around it. Absolutely none. “

Having been through a tough week following the loss of his father, Cook will be hoping that his side can arrest their eight-game winless run.

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