Cheltenham Town v Lincoln City - Consistent

I’ve been asked to get along to Whaddon Road tonight for the first time in ages and it’s good to see that they are positioned nicely for the run in and a possible play-off place.

Automatic promotion can’t be ruled out at this stage of the season of course, but then again neither can a relegation scrap! The Robins though have too much strength to get dragged into the latter scenario and if they can put a run together, I still feel they can surprise a few people – not least themselves and their fans.

Few Cheltenham fans will have been thinking about promotion at the start of the season, as Mark Yates was still a fairly unknown quantity as a manager and the team needed re-building, but he has done a good job and assembled a group of very good footballers who – on their day – can match anyone.

As I have said above, I haven’t seen much of them since the home win over Northampton way back in September, but I have been following their fortunes closely and it appears that, more often than not, a very good win is followed by a defeat or a draw.

They need to improve their home form a little as well. They have won five of their twelve at Whaddon Road so far this season, but won the same number of games on their travels. Keeping that away form going while being a little tighter at home might transform a decent season into a silverware winning one.

I’ve also seen Lincoln a couple of times since Steve Tilson took over and – while they might be propping up League Tow at the moment – he has had an effect. Last weekend’s 4-3 win at fellow strugglers Stockport wasn’t the sign of a side prepared to go down with a whimper. If Cheltenham aren’t fully focused tonight they might catch a cold.

Of the fans I’ve seen this season, I have to say that the Imps followers have been the most impressive. At the game against Wycombe in particular, they didn’t stop singing from the first whistle until the last seconds.

Yates is obviously aware of the potential of his side and said:

“Last year it was a scrap for survival, but we certainly won't be resting on laurels. I will still have plenty sleepless nights, but hopefully they will be good ones, wondering about who to play and how to win matches to take us even higher.

We are only 11 points worse off than we were at the end of last season, so the group have done well and we want to make sure they continue to do so.

We need to be a bit better than we have been and I am confident we can make Whaddon Road a fortress again.

Lincoln won't come and lie down for us and they are a dangerous attacking team, despite their league position. But we have to realise we don't have to win the match in the first 15 minutes."

Imps striker Delroy Facey summed up the never-say-die attitude Tilson has instilled ion his squad and said:

“Cheltenham is going to be a different test all together. They are going to get the ball down and try and play and we have to be in their faces again. If we are going on fitness levels I think the lads' fitness levels are tremendous, we can match anyone on the league on that.

And the ability we have got throughout the squad speaks for itself. Everybody says it's a false position that we are in at the moment and you can see that. But we are down at the bottom of the league for a reason and it's a different task against Cheltenham, but if we show that same grit and desire and the commitment that we showed against Stockport, the same attitude, then I don't see any reason why we can't go there and come away with three points.

We are going into the next game on the back of a win. Now it's a matter of can we go and get a second win. And if we win tonight, can we go on and get a third win and so on and so forth.

We have got to think positive from now on in everything that we do."

Possibly a rally message for both teams, but for different reasons?