United’s second consecutive away trip takes them to Lincoln City this weekend, with assistant manager Gav Skelton expecting another tough encounter come the Saturday 3pm kick off.
“They’ve started reasonably well haven’t they,” he said. “They’ve got some really good players, we like quite a lot of them, and as a group of staff we’ve watched a lot of them live over the last two or three years.
“We know they’ve got a strong squad and at home they’re a handful. We always say it, but it’s about us. We’ll do our preparation and the manager will show clips of their strengths and areas we can exploit, but I always believe it’s about us.
“If we go with the right mentality there’s every possibility we can keep this positive run going.”
“They’ll be exactly the same as us, they’ll be thinking if they go into the game right then they’ll have every opportunity against a team who have just come up and are below them in the table,” he added.
“We’re going into the game on the back of two good results and still thinking we can play better, which is exciting for us and the group. We’ll go there expecting that if we put a performance on we’re capable of getting a result.
“And, of course, we want to keep the run going because it breeds confidence. It’s a good thing to have because if people are low on confidence you can’t just give them it.
“It comes from positive results and working hard, if we keep doing that then the belief will grow. Not just amongst the starters, but the subs, the whole group, the staff and the supporters. We want to keep that going.”
And, should the game take a more physical turn, the players have shown already on a number of occasions that they’re more than up for it.
“I think that’s the league,” he told us. “The Stevenage game was physical in terms of second balls, they’re relentless and they’re extremely good at what they do.
“In terms of the league and the step up, I think it’s physically about the running power of people, the strength of them and the speed of them. There’s different types of physicality and Lincoln will be no different.
“They’re an established League One team, these are the games we have to go and put ourselves up against. We’re well aware of them, how they play and their threats, as they will be of us.
“It’s another where if we go and perform, and have that belief and energy, I think we’re capable of getting a result anywhere. If we don’t it makes it difficult going to a place like Lincoln, which historically is a difficult place to go.”
Speaking more about what we can expect to see, he commented: “They’re very well organised, they don’t really change from the system they’ve been playing.
“The front three are lively and have different threats, that’s something we’ll work on and be aware of. And in midfield they’ve got a couple of players who really know that position well and how to play it. They’ve got a really strong core.
“But so have we. We’ve shown that against some good teams and it all drips into that confidence. We’re coming to expect to get a result, but know we have to be at our best.
“When you’ve got goals in your team, which we’ve had the last two weeks, it gives you that. You’re not panicking, thinking, ‘here we go’ when that first goal goes in. Which is normal. We’ve got that belief we can come from behind.
“And the next thing we’re looking for is the tick the box of a first away win. We wanted to start scoring goals, we’ve got that, we wanted to get our first home win, we’ve got that, we’ve got that first point away, so the next part of the jigsaw is to try and get on a run.
“That’s not just win away from home but go three games unbeaten, and build that belief. The away win will come, hopefully Saturday, but we’re not panicked about that, it’s keeping that run going.”
It almost goes without saying that the fans will be there once again to do their bit, with over 500 tickets purchased so far.
“It will be interesting to see how many travel because it’s a bit of an in between game in terms of distance,” he said. “When you look at our journeys this year there are some really long ones, so this might actually be one of the closer ones with it only being three and a half hours.
“We know they’ll travel in their numbers, as they always do. Away clubs are always surprised with how many fans we take with the distances we have to travel.
“It doesn’t surprise us anymore, but a lot of clubs comment on it. We’re looking forward to seeing them all there on Saturday.”
And although Lincoln has to be the focus, the buzz around the home game against Debry to follow continues to help with the building of that feel good factor.
“It’s about Lincoln, but that is an exciting game to look forward to,” he agreed. “You want promotion to play in these kind of games.
“Lincoln is our focus but big home games are what we want. At the back end of last season there was a really good feeling around the place, which is something we hadn’t had for a number of years.
“The fans have stuck with us this season, I thought maybe against Shrewsbury we might see a lower crowd but they stayed with us, which shows the momentum and belief everybody has got.
“Games like the Derby game will only encourage people who maybe haven’t been coming to keep coming back and get that bug for it. We’ve seen that with the crowds we’ve had so far, so the next game will only enhance that.”
