Lincoln City return to Loftus Road for the first time in 55 years on Saturday, and Chris Cohen says that while it is a ‘bit boring’, he believes that if the Imps reach their levels, it will be a close encounter.
Queens Park Rangers drew 1-1 with Burnley on Tuesday after putting nine goals past Derby County and Swansea City across their previous two home games, while City lost at Watford in a poor game. However, the Imps have shown they can match anyone in the division, and that is something the head coach is always keen to extol.
That said, QPR are a good side, and Chris picked out what they can do with the ball at the goalkeeper’s feet, which gives us something to think about if we go to press them high up the pitch.
“Yes, a really good team, especially at home,” he said in Thursday’s press conference.
“We’ve seen some of the results. They beat Swansea 5-0 just a couple of weeks ago, so we know how dangerous they can be.
“They’re a big, expansive shape, someone we’ve really enjoyed watching in terms of the way they play. Their goalie can pick anyone out on the football pitch, so we’ve got to be really aware of their threat.
“We also know that the way that we play and the strength and the aggression that we have can hurt anyone. We’re hopeful to implement as much of that as we possibly can while understanding what a good team we’re coming up against.”
You have to go back another decade for our last league visit to Loftus Road, a 3-1 win in October 1961. The ground is more familiar, and recent, to Cohen, who sees a similarity with Sincil Bank in the tight pitch and is hoping we can make that work for us.
“I’ve been there a lot as a coach, I’ve been there a lot as a player as well. It’s very, very tight, a really good atmosphere, a nice, tight pitch like the one we play on at home as well.
“So hopefully we can recreate some of the feel that we create in our home games in the main. As I said, we know that if we can reach our levels, and I know it’s a bit boring and I say it in every interview, but when we reach our levels, we are going to be a match and be able to go beyond anyone.
“Hopefully we can find those levels on Saturday afternoon.”
If we’re going to take the game to Rangers, we’ll have to do it without Ben House, who serves a one-match ban after his booking at Watford. Mikkel Ladefoged still needs an independent assessment before he can travel, so there could be more minutes for Rob Street, who came off the bench in both the Birmingham City and Watford defeats.
Street has played in all 14 of our Championship games, starting five, and has two goals in 17 appearances across all competitions. He scored in the League Cup win at Blackpool, but his one league goal came on another trip to London, when he put us 2-0 up at The Den in the draw with Millwall.
“Yeah, I think, like you say, every week is a big name, a big opposition,” he said in the pre-match press conference.
“We’ve got to be ready. They’re another good team, good players all over the pitch, like I say. So we’ve got to go there and hopefully play better than we have the last couple of games and try and get a positive performance.”
QPR tickets were already on general sale when Street scored at The Den. By the following Monday, City had sold all 1,760 tickets for Loftus Road.
“There’s never any denying the passion and the brilliant support we have from the fans at Lincoln.” added Street.
“We’re forever grateful for the support they show us every single week. They travel in numbers, Saturday, Tuesday, whatever day of the week it is. They come in numbers and they always support us, so, yeah, we’re thankful for them.”
Kick-off is at 3 pm, and with the international break to follow, a point or three would make the journey home rather more enjoyable than Tuesday’s.
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