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Lincoln City: A Positive Attitude

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Posted by Kelly Gilchrist
Posted on Thu 30 Jan 2014
Posted in First Team

Neil Aspin insists that this weekend’s tie away at Lincoln City will be no repeat of FC Halifax Town’s last meeting with the Imps, with a 5-1 victory unlikely to be on the cards this time round.

If anything, the Town manager believes that the last result will give the opposition a boost, as they seek to gain revenge and earn crucially needed points for Gary Simpson’s side, who sit 17th in the league table.

However, the boss also believes that his side are more than capable of bringing all three points back to Calderdale, in the hope of improving from recent away draws against Wrexham and Aldershot.

He said: “Lincoln on Saturday is another game that we have to try and get a win. Obviously it will be away from home and we have only won one game away from home this season. We want to try and improve on that. We have to try and go to Lincoln with a positive attitude and try and get the three points.

“Lincoln, they are desperate for points. They need a few more points to get themselves in a more comfortable position. They will be fired up because they lost 5-1, they had a man sent off in the game quite early and they had grievances about that.

“They will want to put it right on Saturday, but when teams are struggling with confidence you have to try and capitalise on that. I think that it’s a game where both teams will feel that they have got to get something out of the game.”

The Shaymen are looking to get their second away victory of the season, whilst extending their current run to four games unbeaten. Alongside this, they couldn’t be in a better position heading into this fixture, having only lost one of their nine last outings.

Lincoln on the other hand, are on a run of the complete opposite, with only one win to their name from the same amount of games played. The list includes four defeats, four draws and a 4-1 victory against Alfreton.

“You can say that we have only lost one game, but we have drawn a lot of games. I am pleased with our performances in our away games apart from the Tamworth game, but I want to start turning draws into wins. You obviously get more points if you win one and lose one than if you draw two, but I have been quite pleased with some of the away performances.”

He added: “The players are confident against any team, they have proved that they can match all of the teams in this league but it depends on how we play ourselves. To get any sort of result, the players have got to be at their best and as I say, all of the games are difficult. The players don’t lack confidence, but we have played better at home than we have away from home.”

Both Simon Ainge and Matty Pearson were forced off during last weekend’s draw at Aldershot, and it is unlikely to know whether they will make the squad ready for 3pm on Saturday.

Scott McManus is set to return from suspension after collecting two yellow cards against Cambridge, and is almost certain to slot straight into the starting eleven to help ease the recent defensive problems.

“Neither of them (Ainge and Pearson) have trained tonight (Tuesday), and neither of them will train on Thursday, so we will have to leave it as late as possible to give them a fitness test probably on Saturday to see whether they can play. However, I have to prepare a team with the possibility that we might be without them.

“It will be nice to have Scott McManus available. He is a good player for us, he has been a good player over the last couple of years. I felt that during the Wrexham and Cambridge games, and the two games previous to that, that he had played well. He felt a bit of a knock in the Cambridge game so it gave him a chance to get rid of that.”

He added: “He will be ready to come into the team for Saturday and we will need his fresh legs going forward. He gives us more impetus in attacking, and in a tracking sense, it will be nice to have him available.”

The Sincil Bank Stadium will host the clash, with kick-off at 3pm.

 

Read more posts by Kelly Gilchrist

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