The Imps travel to Kenilworth Road this Saturday to face Luton Town in what should be an exciting encounter between two promotion-chasing teams, writes Kyle Fox.
Luton will be looking to build on their recent big win over positional rivals Stevenage. With the Hatters now only a point off the play-off places, they will be keen to win this fixture. City, on the other hand want to continue their outstanding recent form after beating some of the best teams in this division, alongside not having lost a league game since 22nd November.
With Cardiff and Bradford facing off against each other in the early kickoff. It leaves an opportunity for either Lincoln or Luton to capitalise on any dropped points, which only adds more to the significance of this game.
Luton Town Form
Luton are currently struggling for form away from home. Recently, they have lost to Exeter away 1-0 in a game where they didn’t manage a shot on target, alongside conceding two minutes after scoring late on away at Reading which lost them the game.
They equalised at the death away at Leyton Orient to salvage a point. However, unfortunately for us, over the last five games, the Hatters have won three in a row at home in the league (they did just lose to Swindon at home in the EFL Trophy), scoring nine and conceding just once. Luton have a few players who have been in very good form leading up to this game.
Top scorer Gideon Kodua is the star out of the three of them as he has scored eight times in 20 appearances this season and four of those have come in his last three games. Alongside him, midfielder Jordan Clark has managed four goals in his last five games. Joint top assister (with three in the league) Nakhi Wells has provided two in his last three matches.
Lincoln City Form
City’s form recently has been almost flawless. It is even more impressive when you factor in how much we have struggled historically season on season during the Christmas period. We took 17 out of a possible 21 points over the last six games, scoring 14 and conceding seven. Importantly, that includes victories away at Stockport and Barnsley, as previously our away form was much worse than our home form (similar to Luton currently).
Reeco Hackett is our top scorer with six league goals, and he has been in brilliant form recently. He has four goals and two assists in his last seven matches. Adam Reach is our joint top assister with three. He has also been in strong goalscoring form recently as he’s found the net three times in each of his last three games. Tendayi Darikwa is worth a mention as he scored two goals and grabbed an assist in our recent thrashing of Posh.
Team news
Lincoln will be without six first-team players for our trip to ‘The Kenny’. Ben House and Adam Jackson are still on the road back but are getting closer. Oscar Thorn is also still recovering from his long-term injury, for which he had an operation.
New signing Josh Honohan is still being eased into the squad slowly as he recovers from a muscle injury. Tom Bayliss is still out after getting injured on New Year’s Day and James Collins is out long-term with his ACL injury. Head Coach Wilshere doesn’t mind changing his starting 11.
It has differed from week to week, so it will be interesting to see what team he opts for come Saturday. I imagine there will be some guaranteed starters like Kodua and Clar,k with their form recently, especially at home.
Match referee
The man in the middle this weekend is Scott Oldham. In the 24 games he has taken charge of this season, he has produced 91 yellow cards, three red cards and awarded five penalties.
He has plenty of experience refereeing EFL games as he began in the 2017/18 season around the same time City were promoted back to League Two. His most notable achievement to date was refereeing the 23/24 EFL Trophy final between Peterborough and Wycombe.
Previous meetings
Our most recent meeting with Luton was, of course, back in September of this season, where we ran out 3-1 winners thanks to goals from Justin Obikwu and a brace from Ben House. Before that, the last meeting between the two sides was that crazy afternoon on New Year’s Day in 2018 away at Luton. The Hatters won 4-2 with Alan Sheehan and Harry Anderson both receiving red cards in the first half.
This weekend Lincoln are seeking to do the double over Luton, which we haven’t managed since the 1998/99 season, which is the same season when we last won away at Luton in the League.
Prediciton
This game is a tricky one to predict. Luton are inconsistent overall, but recently at home, they have been very good. However, we have also performed very well overall recently and have improved our away form. Both teams are tough to break down, but can also create and score well and efficiently.
Luton will most likely have the majority of the possession, which is nothing new for Lincoln and will suit us. I think it could be a tight game with neither team giving too much away. My prediction for this one is a 1-1 draw.