Lincoln City face Rotherham United this weekend, and manager Michael Skubala was quick to acknowledge Matt Hamshaw, who lost his job this week.
The Millers have been in freefall since beating City 3-0, and this weekend represents a great chance for us to register a first home victory against them in the league this century.
We will go toe-to-toe with them with a new face in their dugout, former Huddersfield Town boss Lee Clark. He replaced Hamshaw, who was finally dismissed this week after an awful run of games culminated in a 5-0 loss at Peterborough United.
When asked about the challenge of facing a team with a new manager in the hot seat, Michael first wanted to pay tribute to his predecessor.
“First of all, it’s never nice to see managers lose their jobs,” said Michael. “I wish Matt all the best. He’s had a tough job this season. He’s a great guy, we know him well, and he’s a brilliant coach, so you never like to see that. They are human beings after all.”
When pushed further, Michael briefly explored that human element that many supporters seem to forget when criticising their clubs.
“The reality is that no one wants to do a bad job, no one wants to fail. Behind every manager, coach and player, it might sometimes look like we’re robots, but we’re not. We’re all human beings, and it’s never easy when that happens.”
He then moved on to the challenge posed by Clark, a manager of more than 400 matches with EFL clubs, but who has never sat in the away dugout at the Bank as a boss.
“I know about his time at Birmingham and Bury when they were in League One and he kept them up,” said Michael. “He’s been in this situation before, going into a club with not many games left and managing to keep them in the division. I’m sure he’ll draw on that experience.”
However, as Michael often says, we need to look after ourselves, and planning for a game like this can be tough. It puts a side like us at a disadvantage. We’re a team that plans for an opposition, exploits wekanesses and strengths, and this weekend, that might not be possible.
“In terms of planning, it’s very difficult,” added Michael. “We’ve got to look after ourselves. We can’t prepare for something we don’t know, so we stick to our principles and our methodology and focus on what we do. Hopefully, that puts us in a position to get the job done.
“It’s going to be a really tough game because they’re fighting and scrapping for points at the bottom of the table. They didn’t expect to be where they are.
“They’re not in a good place, and we want to keep everything going and make sure we get three points at home.”
Three points could be vital for us. Bolton face Port Vale, a game they’d expect to win, and we just need to match their results to confirm a promotion. If we matched them this weekend, on Good Friday and Easter Monday, it would mean there were five games to play, and we’d still hold a 15-point gap, plus a +20 goal difference.
That, ladies and gentlemen, would be that.
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