Attendances, budgets, and experience: these are all areas where Lincoln City will be at a disadvantage this coming season.
The Championship is a division littered with big clubs, star players and huge wages. West Ham United and West Brom are sides we sometimes meet in the cup, our big day out in a season. This year, they’ll be opponents in the second tier, and they’re both former clubs of Robert Snodgrass.
The one-time Scotland international spoke to the Stacey West briefly this week, outlining exactly where he feels the Imps could have an advantage. He’s played for big teams in the second tier, with Leeds United another of his former clubs, but he has visited clubs our size or smaller: Scunthorpe, Doncaster and Burton springing to mind.
His experience of going there with the likes of Leeds United and Aston Villa gives us an insight into what it is about smaller clubs that can make them difficult to play against.
“You go and play at a smaller ground, and the atmosphere can be a little intimidating,” said the 38-year-old. “The changing rooms can be very small and not like the bigger clubs, the pitch as well can be a leveller and not be as good as elsewhere, so all these features combined can cause a really tough game.”
We know our pitch is decent, and while our dressing rooms won’t be on a par with West Ham, they’re not bad. It isn’t just the bricks and mortar which can cause an issue for clubs.
“Also, you may not know too much about the opposition if you face them early in a season as well. So some of the players you wouldn’t have played against before, so they are a little unknown when planning how to play against them.
“For Lincoln, they can use all of these to their advantage as they welcome bigger teams next season in the Championship.”
The EFL Championship fixtures come out in just under 48 hours, and West Ham, West Brom and a host of big clubs will find out when they have to go up against little old Lincoln, on what we hope is not a brief foray into the Championship for the first time in over 60 years.
Robert Snodgrass was talking to the Stacey West courtesy of William Hill – Final One Standing.
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