Fleetwood Town boss warns of a tough test ahead at Lincoln City

Town go into this afternoon’s game at Sincil Bank on the back of defeat to Portsmouth on the opening day and the midweek Carabao Cup loss at Stoke City.

Grayson was full of praise for the work that his Lincoln counterpart, Michael Appleton, has done having missed out in last season’s play-off final.

He said: “It’s another tough game for us.

“They did ever so well last season, getting to the play-off final, and they narrowly missed out. Michael has done a great job at that football club.

“There has been a change of personnel at that football club as they’ve had some of their star loan players go back. Jorge Grant has left but they have replaced them with other good players.

“We know it’s going to be a tough game. You know they’re going to their place in their first home game, so it’s going to be a vocal crowd.

“We’ve got to withstand any pressure that you get from them early on but we’ve also got to implement our game and what we want to do.

“We’ve got to try and replicate the result and performance we got there last season when we went there and won the game.

“It’s a new group of players now and I’m sure they will be trying to use that disappointment from losing the play-off final for the whole of the season, not just the first few games.

“It’s got to be the outlook to have when you narrowly miss out in the play-off final.

“There’s different personnel but they play in a similar manner to last year and we’ve got to make sure we’re at it and we compete and use the ball in a positive manner.

“We know how they play, they probably know how we’ll play, and then we’ll see where it goes if we can play the best that we can.”

Although Town are still awaiting their first win, Grayson isn’t panicking.

There would have been more concern had performances not been up to scratch but Grayson believes results will come.

He said: “We’re pleased with how we’ve played in both games.

“Tuesday night was a different type of game but we showed different qualities that we’re going to need over the course of a season.

“If you’re playing poorly and losing you have more concerns, but we played well over the last two games and have to do whatever is required to go and win over the weekend.”

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