The Imps are looking to head to Orient and avenge last season’s 3-2 defeat, a task that won’t be easy.
Ritchie Wellens’ side are not the play-off chasers they were last season, but they’re always a threat. He sets teams up well, and they’re often slow starters.
In our two games in the previous season, we took six points, but only led for a minute of normal time across both games. That, of course, came after the tragic passing of Derek Reynolds, which resulted in a game they led in being replayed.
This is a different Lincoln, and one described as being on a ‘terrific run of form’ by former O’s striker Peter Kitchen. The Mexborough-born forward made his name at Doncaster Rovers, before moving to Orient in 1977.
Ever-present in his debut season with Orient, he ended the campaign as their leading scorer with 21 goals and added a further seven in the FA Cup, helping the club reach the semi-finals after memorable victories over Chelsea and Middlesbrough. He earned a £150,000 (£750,000 with inflation) to Cardiff City, and returned to Orient in 1982 for a couple of seasons.
“Saturday’s visitors Lincoln come south in a terrific run of form which has taken them into the play-off places,” he told Yellow Ad. “The Imps are managed by Michael Skubala, who briefly served as Interim Head Coach and then Caretaker at Leeds United during their time in the Premier League in 2023.
“But he moved to Lincoln in November 2023, and last season in his first full season in charge, Lincoln just missed out on a play-off place, losing to champions Portsmouth on the last day of the season and subsequently finished in eleventh place.
With the history lesson diespensed with, he went on to assess us this season, again underlining our attributes.
“This season his team have started very well, and in September when the Imps took ten points from twelve, this form won him the manager of the month award. They have certainly found their consistency, which is key to any side with promotion aspirations and have only lost once in their last ten games, having won six and drawn three and last time out they beat League leaders Stevenage 1-0.”
Kitchen concluded: “This will be a difficult game for the O’s, but experience has often shown that we tend to raise our game against better opposition, and if we do, then it will be a much closer game than the form book might suggest, so I’m going to go with a draw.”
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