Mansfield arrive at Sincil Bank on the back of a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Plymouth Argyle, the current leaders of the Division Three table, and will be looking to collect maximum points tonight to ensure their hunt for one of the automatic promotion spots. They will be without the services of their goalscoring dynamo Chris Greenacre, who is suspended. Lincoln City is one team he will not be stinging twice in one season. The signing of journeyman David Kelly, means that he is anticipated to be in the starting lineup.
Alan Buckley has publicly stated that he was satisfied by the honest endeavours of The Imps on Saturday given the inhospitable conditions presented by the swirling wind, but he will want City to be more incisive in their play and certainly Lee Thorpe, Dave Cameron and Tony Battersby are expected to give more effort and workrate to increase The Imps goal tally. Three points tonight, and a defeat for Halifax will surely see Lincoln City reasonably safe from the dreaded drop into the Football Conference for this season. However, in the middle of February, there are other teams sweating over their current form, and will be hoping that York can further increase the misery for The Shaymen.
The question remains though - Will Halifax be the ones to drop?