Lincoln City boss insists a 5-1 drubbing of Peterborough United won't count for anything on Saturday
Lincoln City boss Michael Skubala has warned his players they will be playing a completely different Peterborough United team at the Weston Homes Stadium on Saturday (3pm).
The last time the teams met Lincoln thumped Posh 5-1 at the LNER Stadium in a League One clash in January. Only midfielder Archie Collins from that Posh starting line-up is likely to start on Saturday, but Skubala is also wary of an opposing team who have picked up form in the last couple of weeks.
Lincoln have been in excellent form this season, losing just once in their opening 9 League One games to sit 3rd in the table, 20 places and 11 points clear of Posh.
But there is some concern in the visiting camp that tough games against League One promotion fancies Luton Town last Saturday and against Premier League big hitters Chelsea in a Carabao Cup tie on Tuesday could leave them physically vulnerable on Saturday. Posh boss Darren Ferguson described Lincoln’s first-half display in a 3-1 home win over Luton as ‘outstanding’ and the ‘Imps’ led Chelsea at half-time before losing 2-1.
Posh have had a free week following their own 1-0 win at Plymouth Argyle last Saturday.
Skubala told the Lincoln City media team: “There are so many reasons why this will be a tough game for us. We expended a lot of energy against Chelsea so we have to manage that and the fact that we are coming down from a game which had a fantastic atmosphere. The senior players will be important as they will have experienced this before whereas the younger players won’t have done.
"We are also playing a team that is on upturn as their last 2 results have shown. They are a very different team to when we played them last season, and they are playing a very different style.
"We were great against Luton and fantastic in the first-half against Chelsea, but we can’t drop our levels. We have players chipping in with goals from all over the team and we believe we can put a team on the pitch capable of getting points.”
Lincoln defender Reeco Hackett added: “We’ve been picking up points when we haven’t been perfect which is a good thing, but we probably should have even more points.
"This game could come at a good time for us as we are on a good run. The Chelsea game took a lot out of the group so if we can get points at the weekend it will be a big statement.”