Sunderland (h): Three Things The Imps Need To Do To Win Tomorrow

Ahead of tomorrow’s match at home against Sunderland 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 sedgleyimp said:

1. Start on the front foot. Tuesday night at Rotherham we ultimately lost because we started slowly. The second-half performance was much improved but when you are already two down against a team who don’t concede that many goals you are really going to struggle to get back into the game if you don’t start at the right tempo. That last home game against Wednesday we started very brightly with that early shot from Fiorini which led to the corner that we scored from. That has to be the starting point against Sunderland. Take the game to them from the first whistle and we have an excellent chance. Let them start the quickest and we may be in trouble.

2. Switch play quickly and often. Brooke Norton-Coffey has attracted attention for his excellent start in a Lincoln shirt and you could see especially in the Wimbledon game how he has quickly attained a reputation as a very dangerous attacking full-back. They instantly double up on him at every chance he had to go on one of those runs we have started to thoroughly enjoy in the stands. On the other side of the pitch we have another roadrunner in Cohen Bramall. Against Rotherham, he made our goal and was dangerous throughout. The simple truth is that Sunderland or any team will struggle to double up against both players, and if they did try the gaps that would produce for other players will be huge. So if we think and play quickly and switch the attacks between the different sides of the pitch we have the chance to pull their defence to pieces.

3. Forget the away result. Terrific as it was the away match is very much in the past. Sunderland have changed manager since and in Alex Neil have a very capable and experienced coach. They have added a couple of players including Jermaine Defoe who if he plays still has that goalscoring instinct despite being only slightly younger than Methuselah, so Saturday will be a very different match to that we played a couple of months ago. Don’t go into the match thinking it will go the same way as it did that night as that would be a recipe for disaster.

Thank you to Graham Burrell and Lincoln City Football Club for the photograph!

Have a go at our Lincoln City versus Sunderland Quizzes, published last season (they were all correct at the time they were published). The first quiz can be found below, and the links to the other four can be found HERE: Quiz No.2, Quiz No.3 & Quiz No.4.

Sunderland (h): Three Things The Imps Need To Do To Win Tomorrow:https://t.co/AMwvJAIS3A#ImpsAsOne #SAFC

— Vital Lincoln City (@VitalLincoln) March 18, 2022