Ahead of tomorrow night’s match away at Bolton Wanderers in League One, I asked the Vital Lincoln City members what three things they think The Imps need to do to pick up all three points.
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Here’s what sedlgeyimp said:
1. Be on it from the kick-off. Tuesday’s match will be a difficult one but not an insurmountable one. Their home form of late is quite impressive with that 6-0 win over Sunderland still fresh in the memory and on Saturday they put four past Wimbledon without reply. Interestingly though they don’t seem to score that early in games, but if you look back only one week they found themselves 3-0 down away at Burton within 20 minutes of the kick-off. Does that suggest a team that starts games slowly? Very possibly so that early part of the game could be very important and just might give us an opportunity to put them under early pressure which they could very easily buckle under. So be at it from the very kick-off and that just might reap benefits come full time.
2. Stop the service to their attack. Bolton have spent heavily on their attack and have three strikers in form and scoring goals. Afolayan, Bakayoko, and Charles are dangerous and given half a chance will punish us. The fact that they have more than one option in that position only increases that threat. So the key to stopping them from scoring will be more down to stopping the service to them. This might mean a similar formation and mindset which worked so very well in the away win at Sunderland and result in a game where we look to keep it very tight and play on the breakaway.
3. Set pieces have to be spot on. I suspect that we won’t get that many chances on Tuesday and dead ball situations may prove to be our best opportunity. Our last goal came from a well-worked corner routine and that kind of invention will be needed to make the most of those chances.
Thank you to Graham Burrell and Lincoln City Football Club for the photograph!
Bolton Wanderers (a - 22/02/22): Will The Imps Win, Lose or Draw?
Win
Lose
Draw
Bolton Wanderers (a): Three Things The Imps Need To Do To Win:https://t.co/9Bpa2sl2rt#BWFC #ImpsAsOne
— Vital Lincoln City (@VitalLincoln) February 21, 2022
Hi. The comment regarding set pieces is spot on. Burton’s three goals last week had little to do with them being early in the game (we’d have conceded them at any point), they were purely down to our inability to defend set plays. We’re generally pretty shite with our attacking set pieces too, although we have managed to score from a couple recently. As noted, we have three strikers on form who’ve just been joined by a fourth – all four of them scored against Wimbledon on Saturday. As also noted, you’ll need need to stop the supply to them, specifically from the wingbacks, Fossey and John. Charles latches onto most things which come through the middle and must be horrible to defend against. Shame you guys are still missing Bridcutt – he had an excellent loan spell with us before joining you guys. Safe journey to all of you coming over for it. Things weather-wise are a lot calmer just now so I hope it stays that way for you. All the best.