Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell has piled praise on Lincoln City as he prepares his side to visit the LNER Stadium on Saturday.
The Imps have enjoyed an excellent start to the season and currently sit third in League One. They have lost just once in the league thus far, which came against AFC Wimbledon in their second game of the campaign.
A 3-0 win over Peterborough United last weekend extended Lincoln’s unbeaten run to eight games, which is currently the longest in all of England’s top four divisions. They were also widely praised following a 2-1 defeat against Premier League giants Chelsea last week, where they pushed the World Champions all the way.
Caldwell Praises ‘Fantastic’ Michael Skubala
Exeter travel to Lincolnshire on a run of four successive defeats. Lincoln are arguably the one team that nobody wants to face now, especially when in a run of bad form.
Caldwell is wary of the threat his opponents will pose this weekend and was full of praise ahead of the clash. Speaking to the media, he said:
“I think they’ve built on what they’ve done for a number of years now, they’re a very strong League One team. A fantastic manager, clear identity, they’ve invested over the years to improve the squad and the competition. They look a really strong team this year.
“We know whenever we go there it’s a really difficult game but, at this moment in time they’re playing well, up the top of the league, it’s going to be tough. We have to be prepared for that, but as I always say, we have to be prepared to be ourselves.”
Despite the difference in league positions, the encounter is set to be a tight affair, with both of last season’s meetings finishing 0-0.
Writer’s View
Lincoln are the in-form team in League One at the moment and will be relishing the visit of Exeter on Saturday. Michael Skubala has steadily built a squad that looks capable of challenging for promotion having narrowly missed out on a place in the play-offs at the end of the 2023/24 campaign. A season of mid-table obscurity followed but the head coach has made some quality additions to an already talented squad. As a result, they look mightily impressive, especially against Chelsea. The Imps rotated their squad against the Blues but still held a half time league before two moments of brilliance from the Premier League outfit settled the tie. There may only be 10 games gone but Lincoln look like a Championship side in wait.
