Michael Skubala is clearly relishing the chance to get his teeth into Reading on Monday, and a position in the Championship moves ever closer.
City’s 1-0 win against Wimbledon means only Stockport and Bolton can catch us on goal difference, and one of those sides will fall out of that race on Monday. Even if one does win, anything for us will see Lincoln City line up among the top 44 teams in the country next season.
Leam Richardson will be in the opposition dugout, and he’ll still be hoping to ensure Reading joins us. The Royals have crept slowly into the top six, but have played more than some of their rivals.
After a horrible start to the season, beginning with defeat at Bank, they’ve climbed the table under the former Rotherham United and Wigan Athletic boss, and Michael Skubala believes he’s done well since going into the club.
“Yeah, excellent job since he’s been in,” said Michael in his post-match interview.
“He’s (Leam) done an excellent job there, and it’s a big club again, big resources, ex Premier League club. It’s not a small club; they’re a big club.
“We like taking on the big clubs, we like being us and taking on the big teams.”
Despite relishing the chance to go toe-to-toe with last season’s captain, Paudie O’Connor, Michael admitted that it will be a tough game, just as the Wimbledon encounter showed.
“It’s going to be a really tough game, but I thought today it just shows you how hard it is to win football matches at this level and to go like you say 23 unbeaten. Is it 18 wins or 17 wins now?
“It’s been excellent. But we want to keep going. We want to keep pushing. We want to keep going right to the very end.”
What does ‘the very end’ entail? The title? Promotion? The latter would be expected given our recent run, but the former would be some achievement. For a club 17th in the budget table, which saw O’Connor move for a better chance at Championship football, to be the side to beat is a remarkable achievement.