Following on from the departure of manager Mark Kennedy, plenty of Lincoln City fans wondered what might be in store for the remainder of the 2023/24 campaign, particularly following the appointment of relatively unknown 41 year old Michael Skubala.
With 20 odd years of coaching experience to his name, few in the wider world of football had actually heard of him until he joined Leeds United as head coach of their Under 21 side, and he then soon spent a short spell in charge of the first team as a caretaker gaffer, before arriving at Sincil Bank as a manager in his own right in mid-November.
24 games into his tenure, we have ten wins and eight draws, and are flying pretty high in the League 1 table as we sit in ninth place with 58 points after 38 games have been played. Naturally Imps fans are looking at the play off spots as although there is a 12 point deficit to close on Barnsley in fifth place, Stevenage occupy sixth place by a measly three points, and given our form if betting on football matches odds would suggest we can easily close that gap.
However, March had begun to look like a difficult month for us at the start. We lost 25 year old former Manchester United youngster Ethan Hamilton for the rest of the campaign to a knee injury at the end of February, and although we did keep our ten game unbeaten run going against Stevenage, we could only take a point from the game. We then lost 28 year old loanee Conor McGrandles for the season as he picked up an ankle issue.
Then something massively clicked again, and in our trip to Oakwell to face Barnsley, it was almost like we could do no wrong when we sae the frame of the goal, absolutely hammering them 5-1. We then went and repeated the trick when we welcomed Cambridge United to our home soil a few days later, as we absolutely stuffed them with a 6-0 score line.
With fans looking forward to this Saturday’s clash with Bristol Rovers, very much hoping to see a repeat performance along the lines of our last two showings, well the manner of the victories has simply intensified the optimism surrounding a potential play off promotion push, and not only a trip to Wembley being on the cards, but a Championship experience for the 2024/25 season.
Obviously, the gaffer is rightly delighted with our current form and performance levels, but he insisted that neither he, nor the team, would be letting themselves get carried away by things just yet, as there are plenty of games left and plenty of points up for grabs, and that has to continue to be our only focus.
With eleven goals in two matches, a 12 game unbeaten run and only being just three points off the play off spots, Skubala did encourage the fans themselves to drink in the current optimism that is surrounding the club.
“We need to keep our feet on the ground. Enjoy it as fans and get excited, but for me it’s about doing the right thing at the right time, which is going to the next game and trying to win it.”
With 22 year old striker, Jack Moylan, getting four of the eleven goals in the last two matches, he obviously also came in for good praise from the gaffer, and he was delighted with the ‘ruthless’ way we were now approaching matches, crediting the overall mentality of the whole squad and the improvement that they had shown as the months have ticked by.
But he was also very insistent that this had only been a start and that we had laid down a marker to those sides above us, showing that we will be there to capitalise on any of their slip ups.
He is simply focused on seeing us take the next step and actually cracking sixth spot.
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