Three Things The Imps Need To Do To Win Versus Accrington Stanley

Ahead of Saturday’s match at home against Accrington Stanley 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.

You can discuss this refereeing appointment HERE, as well as get involved with our pre-match threads: You can post your score predictions, discuss the starting XI, and predict the attendance!

Here’s what hulloutpost said (you can see what sedgleyimp said HERE):

On the back of the disappointing performance at Cambridge, now would be a good time as any to go for solidity, shape and pragmatism – function over finery if you will. I would argue that a good result is more important right now than an eye-catching performance. Thankfully Accrington are the type of opponent that are unlikely to blow Lincoln away and offer such an opportunity. Unfortunately, experience tells us that they will be anything but accommodating to that aim and will likely scrap, fight, battle, with every sinew to prevent that. On that basis, we need to be ready to match them by keeping things simple and trust we have a little bit of quality and home advantage to edge them out. At least Accrington don’t generally travel as well as they perform on their own patch. With that in mind:

Defence: Simple and solid, please. TJ has to come out of the firing line and Poole needs to slide over. Is it too much to ask for Walsh to stay fit and start for this one? Robson up against some big Accy units isn’t doing it for me so Roughan to sit in there, please.

Midfield: Again, we simply cannot allow Accrington to bully us. We have to do what we can with the players available and all of the players selected will have to raise their game significantly to at least match Accrington in this department. We are limited physically but Virtue has to be given the chance to show what he can do, and Sorensen can at least provide some legs and energy to close down the space. House or Bishop for the other spot in the three and I’m a little torn. Bishop has been our most effective attacking option and I would love him to be deployed in his best role. House didn’t do particularly well at Cambridge in the midfield role, but he is a strong, combative individual. Given the brief I have outlined, I’m controversially going with House as it would be a little hypocritical to do otherwise. As good as Bishop has been, lose the midfield to Accrington and he runs the risk of us not being able to get him into the game.

Attack: Please can we revert to the three-up top with Hopper in the middle and two pacey wide men on either side – preferably Diamond and Garrick if fit. Failing that Vernam to come in. The formation at Cambridge seemed a little muddled and unbalanced so let’s revert to what we know. In Garrick and Diamond, we have two very direct, pacey wingers – exactly what we need and precisely not what Accrington want.

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