Ben House believes Lincoln City aren’t far off from competing with the teams at the top end of League One, despite their recent poor form.
The Imps head into this afternoon’s game with Rotherham United at the LNER Stadium having one just one of their previous 10 league games. This has seen them slip from the play-off positions to mid-table.
Lincoln famously enjoyed an excellent second half of the campaign last season, which saw them narrowly miss out on a place in the play-offs with a final day defeat against champions Portsmouth. House and co will be looking for a repeat this year, starting with this afternoon’s visit of the Millers.
House Hoping For Upturn In Form
Lincoln’s last home game saw them convincingly beat fellow play-off hopefuls Reading. They have followed that with two defeats, although the latter against Bolton was turned on its head when midfielder Ethan Erhahon was sent off at half time after picking up a second yellow card for dissent.
House sees promise in the first half performance at the Toughsheet Community Stadium and hopes his teammates can take heart from that this afternoon. Speaking to official club media, the 25-year-old, who has five goals this season, said:
“I thought we were in the game at Bolton at half-time on Sunday, and with 11 men we could have tested them. But as a group we need to deal with our sticky patch and we’ll come through better for it.
“It’s a tough league. Obviously there’s standout teams in there like Birmingham City and Huddersfield Town, but in pretty much every game we’ve played we’ve been in the game. The standard is high but I don’t think we’re far from it.”
It’s been just a few weeks since the Imps met Rotherham, with the South Yorkshire side winning 2-1. House previewed the clash:
“It’s not too long since we played Rotherham, and that was a disappointing 2-1 loss as I thought in the second half we’d played well. I don’t think either side will have changed too much since then and we’re ready to go out there to work hard for a result.”
Writer’s View
If Lincoln really do harbour ambitions of making the play-offs this season, they need to pick up form, and quickly. Their win over Reading saw them move back into the top six but just two games later, they are six points adrift in 12th. That shows how quickly things can change in this division, but they will take heart from their last home outing. Rotherham will represent a stern test, although the Imps will be confident of picking up three points against a team that are winless in their last three.
