Bolton 3-1 Lincoln City

The footiefest rolls on with another game tomorrow night as we host Lincoln City who sit 13 points behind us in 17th, but with 2 games in hand.

Lincoln have had a real mixed bag of results since the year began, beating Oxford and Sunderland but losing to struggling Doncaster so it's hard to know what to expect from them. Their away form has been better than their home form - but still mixed. What is noticeable is that apart from putting 3 past Sunderland away from home, all their games have been tight affairs mainly with 1 goal margins.

Discussion on the Imps' fans forum includes  "three things they need to do" if they are going to beat us:
1) Start quickly and get at us from the off because we tend not to score early
2) Stop the supply from our wingbacks
3) Make the most of set pieces
Can't really argue with that, still it's good to know that opposing fans are noticing us now and the "6 past Sunderland" thing was mentioned more than once. Interestingly, their match prediction poll is currently at 50 -50 with nobody going for the draw.
Since the Cowley's left, their manager has been Michael Appleton so we can be pretty sure that they will try to play out from the back which will be interesting against our high press. And they will press us - Appleton has a very similar approach to Evatt - although he prefers a 433 and occasionally goes 4411 as he did in their narrow defeat to MKD on Saturday.
With matching styles, for me it will come down to performances and although Lincoln have a decent all round squad and a promising lad on loan from Swansea, the one to watch out for is John Marquis who afficionados of the EFL will know for his striking ability. Marquis signed for them in January and so far has made 6 appearances and scored 3. Need to keep him under wraps cos he's a clever bugger and a natural finisher.

Former BWFC player to note:  Liam Bridcutt - who did well for us is it Lincoln but hasn't played recently so suspect he's injured.

But this is our home pitch and conditions should be good enough to suit our style, so barring a complete f*** up I'm expecting us us to win comfortably. I'm guessing 2 nil.

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Form guide

Interesting that the likes of Ipswich, MK, Plymouth and Wednesday are up at the top of the form league too, which is why we haven’t made the ground up on them that we might have but they have to play each other soon and we also play a few of them which must be considered 6 pointers. We therefore can’t have any slip ups like tomorrows game. These are absolute must wins as we don’t have any margin for error. Needless to say, we need to be taking points off the aforementioned too, probably wins if we can to really make the ground up. With the squad we have now I believe we can do it but it will be a much harder task than last year unless some of the teams above slip up or suffer injuries or sendings off to key players. As for tomorrow, I’m not worried and expect another Wanderers win either 2 or 3 nil.

Whitesince63 wrote:Interesting that the likes of Ipswich, MK, Plymouth and Wednesday are up at the top of the form league too, which is why we haven’t made the ground up on them that we might have but they have to play each other soon and we also play a few of them which must be considered 6 pointers. We therefore can’t have any slip ups like tomorrows game. These are absolute must wins as we don’t have any margin for error. Needless to say, we need to be taking points off the aforementioned too, probably wins if we can to really make the ground up. With the squad we have now I believe we can do it but it will be a much harder task than last year unless some of the teams above slip up or suffer injuries or sendings off to key players. As for tomorrow, I’m not worried and expect another Wanderers win either 2 or 3 nil.

MKD have a tough run in but the others are no worse than ours and some look easier - there's not that many that have still to play each other but we have to face 5 teams above us including Wigan away plus Portsmouth who are on our tails with 3 games in hand on us.
Rather than hoping they'll take points off each other, we'll just have to hope they slip up against lower teams and we win every game.
We face a huge challenge and need a fair slice of luck IMO.

The right back that Appleton reckons will outshine of Fossey is [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

wanderlust wrote:
MKD have a tough run in but the others are no worse than ours and some look easier - there's not that many that have still to play each other but we have to face 5 teams above us including Wigan away plus Portsmouth who are on our tails with 3 games in hand on us.
Rather than hoping they'll take points off each other, we'll just have to hope they slip up against lower teams and we win every game.
We face a huge challenge and need a fair slice of luck IMO.

I don’t know the full fixtures for all the teams Lusty so I’ll take your word for some having easier run ins but I agree we face a huge challenge whatever the games to come. I know we won’t catch the likes of Wigan and MK who we still have to play away but I actually think that being away may be an advantage with the pressure on both to win because they’re both fighting for Automatic. Especially against Wigan with a full and noisy away end, I’m hoping we can put one over on them like they did to us twice this season. Third time lucky eh?

Whitesince63 wrote:
I don’t know the full fixtures for all the teams Lusty so I’ll take your word for some having easier run ins but I agree we face a huge challenge whatever the games to come. I know we won’t catch the likes of Wigan and MK who we still have to play away but I actually think that being away may be an advantage with the pressure on both to win because they’re both fighting for Automatic. Especially against Wigan with a full and noisy away end, I’m hoping we can put one over on them like they did to us twice this season. Third time lucky eh?

That would be fantastic and having lost against Burton, we may have to win that one to scrape over the line - but the reality of our situation is that we're now behind where we need to be so it's very much one game at a time starting with tonight's challenge.
And Lincoln have some match winners especially Sulley and Marquis so I wouldn't bank on anything.

We can't get out of 10th even if we win tonight.  Ipswich have a home game also. The good thing is that Sunderland are self-destructing and Wycombe have not won in 5 games --- both ahead of us in the table. So all we can do is collect another three points and close the gap......COYWM

I can see us winning this comfortably, either 2-0 or 3-0.

terenceanne wrote:We can't get out of 10th even if we win tonight.  Ipswich have a home game also. The good thing is that Sunderland are self-destructing and Wycombe have not won in 5 games --- both ahead of us in the table. So all we can do is collect another three points and close the gap......COYWM

We may never get out of 10th spot TA so I'd stop worrying about it.
We could even be pushed down to 11th by Portsmouth soon so it's best to try to ignore the table - it's frustrating

wanderlust wrote:
We may never get out of 10th spot TA so I'd stop worrying about it.
We could even be pushed down to 11th by Portsmouth soon so it's best to try to ignore the table - it's frustrating

I’m not worried about Portsmouth lusty, (famous last words) we’ve got the points in the bag and like us they have some tough games ahead. All attention needs to be on those above us and especially the likes of Plymouth and Wednesday, who we have to catch and have to play yet. Every game now has to be a win until we’re in the happy position of being ahead of the others, which won’t be for a while yet at least. 

One game at a time, we can’t affect others results so we just have to concentrate on ourselves. Although it won’t mathematically confirm anything, the MK game on Saturday will be definitive for me. Win that and it sets the tone, lose or draw it and I think it’ll have to be next year. Either way 3 points is a must tonight and I think we’ll win by 2 or 3 goals.

Hey Lusty, is that you contributing to the Lincoln thread? I joined earlier in the season as I lived in Lincoln for a while and although I’m registered it won’t let me post, just says I don’t have enough permissions. Any idea what that means. Sorry if it’s not you? 🥴

Well that was a struggle but we put a shine on it when they opened up at the end trying to get an equaliser. Thought we were way off the pace for a lot of the game but we managed to exploit their defensive weak spot and found a way to win.

Need to be a lot better than that v MKD on Saturday, but 3 points are 3 points and we move on.

A few other results went our way tonight and that helps.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL DEL BOLTON LO HIZO JOHNSTON DE CABEZAAAAAA!!! [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] 1-0 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

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They say it's a sign of a good team when you win without playing your best, well tonight was another massive step forward gaining on several teams and within touching distance now, still a lot to do but we are contenders. Someone posted all the fixtures on another platform if correct Plymouths final 7 games are horrendous so all to play for, also for me Dempsey needs to start Mj breaks play up but also slows us down when in possession.

Turned out to be a harder slog than expected.
The crowd seemed to be frustrated at all the side and back passing, I believe MJ back in the team has a good hand in that but thankfully we have enough on the bench now to get around it. Actually, with Santos out it turned out to be a sensible move to put MJ back in.  
Right now, I prefer Dempsy - the mid-field flows better.

Anyway, taking the three points and marching on - COYWM.

wessy wrote:They say it's a sign of a good team when you win without playing your best, well tonight was another massive step forward gaining on several teams and within touching distance now, still a lot to do but we are contenders. Someone posted all the fixtures on another platform if correct Plymouths final 7 games are horrendous so all to play for, also for me Dempsey needs to start Mj breaks play up but also slows us down when in possession.

Agree with this 100% especially MJ and Dempsey. We were way below par tonight but still had enough to win, although had Marquis not missed two sitters it could have been different. Maybe nobody wanted to get injured and miss the MK game but certainly there didn’t just seem the same energy from the lads tonight. Still, 3 more points in the bag and getting closer to the prize. Another 3 on Saturday and we’re bang in it.