Lincoln City return to Sincil Bank on Wednesday evening for an eagerly anticipated Championship encounter with high-flying West Ham United.
City will hope to respond to Saturday’s defeat at Sheffield United as the Imps chase their first home win of the campaign against a side relegated from the Premier League last term.
West Ham United Form
West Ham arrive in Lincolnshire also seeking a response after Friday evening’s frustrating draw with Queens Park Rangers. United were far from their best for large spells of the encounter, but controversially trailed after Tomáš Souček was adjudged to have fouled Paul Smyth in the penalty area, despite replays showing otherwise. Nicolas Madsen put away the penalty, but Jarrod Bowen levelled with 20 minutes remaining.
He looked destined to give the Hammers all three points in second-half stoppage time when they were awarded a spot-kick of their own. Amadou Mbengue pulled Pablo to the deck, but Bowen was twice denied the chance to be the hero by a superb double save from visiting keeper Pierce Charles. That leaves West Ham winless in three matches across all competitions, having exited the Carabao Cup against Fulham before an entertaining draw against fierce rivals Millwall before the international break.
Friday’s third successive London derby also continued a worrying trend of slow starts for Nuno Espírito Santo’s side, who began the campaign in a sluggish manner. The East London outfit failed to win any of their first three Championship matches before taking a dose of revenge against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Wolves recorded their first Premier League win at the twentieth time of asking against the Hammers last season, but it was the hosts who were victorious at the London Stadium on this occasion. However, West Ham’s first victory of the season against the West Midlands side spurred a run of four successive wins. Home wins without conceding against Derby County and Wrexham, scoring six goals in the latter, were split by a hard-fought three points at Bolton Wanderers.
United were many people’s favourites for promotion, and the title before a ball was kicked. Thus far, they’ve certainly proved their worth in attacking areas, scoring a league-high 23 times. However, improvements will be needed defensively if they are to challenge for automatic promotion this term. The Hammers sit third in the standings before the midweek action gets underway this evening, losing only once in the league to Charlton Athletic back in August.
West Ham United Team News
Hammers boss Nuno Espírito Santo will speak to the press later today, which could give an indication of whether his squad are nursing any knocks from their fixture on Friday evening. They do have the upper hand ahead of this game in terms of recovery, having faced a home fixture the day before ours, leaving four clear days before travelling to Lincolnshire tomorrow.
Keiber Lamadrid has been absent since the six-goal thriller against Wolves at the start of September. Nuno gave an update regarding the fitness of the Venezuelan before they met with the Hoops last week.
“There are always a few little issues and knocks, but the only player who is clearly not available is Keiber Lamadrid.
“He’s still recovering, but apart from that there is nothing major. The rest of the squad is in a good place.”
The likelihood of Lamadrid featuring feels unlikely, but he is the only obvious injury absentee. Souček came through his first competitive appearance of the campaign last Friday, while Manor Solomon also started after recovering from a knock whilst away on international duty with Israel.
Mohamadou Kanté, who began the comeback in the fiery derby against Milwall, was dismissed in the final minutes for a last-man foul on Kyrell Lisbie before he reached the penalty area. The Frenchman will once again be available for selection on Wednesday evening, having served his one-match ban.
Summer Business
West Ham’s relegation to the Championship was unprecedented for the business that then followed over the summer. Tottenham Hotspur broke their transfer record to sign Hammers midfielder Mateus Fernandes for £85m, while Crysencio Summerville left for Saudi Arabian outfit Al-Hilal for a similarly staggering £60m fee.
El Hajdi Diouf and Freddie Potts also left for sizeable fees to Brentford and Club Brugge, leaving Nuno with a healthy transfer kitty. The East London outfit broke the EFL transfer record to sign Arne Engels from Celtic for £22m. Norwegian winger Edvin Austbø joined from Viking FK, while Solomon added further depth in wide attacking areas from Spurs.
West Ham have utilised the loan market to sign Joël Piroe, Divine Mukasa, Morato and Joël Veltman from the Premier League quartet of Leeds United, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest and Brighton & Hove Albion, respectively. Despite the outgoings, keeping hold of star man Bowen, alongside Konstantinos Mavropanos, the most recent winner of the Championship’s Player of the Month award, has been as crucial as any new signings.
Previous Meetings
You have to wind the clock back 69 years to the last time that Lincoln entertained West Ham in a league game. Meetings between the two sides were common in the 1950s, but just three fixtures have followed since that decade.
The Hammers won a League Cup 3rd round replay back in 1982, after the sides couldn’t be separated in Lincolnshire earlier that month. More recently, we faced the Irons three years ago in a glamour tie at Sincil Bank. That was a reward for defeating our last league opponents, Sheffield United, on penalties, with West Ham ending our League Cup interests with a narrow victory infront of a capacity crowd.
The head-to-head record is narrowly edged by the side who play in claret and blue, with 11 wins to our seven victories from 24 matches.
What Can We Expect?
After a tough afternoon on Saturday at Sheffield United, this is hardly the ideal fixture to try and find a response. Hitting West Ham early will be absolutely crucial to getting any result, though we have twice struck first this campaign and lost. Those results were against the sides that occupy the top two spots in the division, Swansea City and Middlesbrough, and the Irons are the team just behind in third place.
As was the case before Saturday’s game at Bramall Lane, any positive result here would be absolutely huge. Make no mistake, we will have our work cut out for us to achieve that in what should be a fascinating evening under the lights.
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