With six games to go in the race for the top six, Lincoln are the first of the half dozen sides we face between now and the end of the regular season.
Lincoln is famous for its stunning cathedral -once the tallest building in the world - and for its historic, steep street called Steep Hill, known for its challenging climb. Lincoln City are Valley-bound this Saturday and Charlton find themselves nearing the top of their own steep climb. With just a handful of games left, the Addicks stand on the brink of the play-off places, casting half an eye towards the hallowed ground of automatic promotion. Victory against Lincoln City would mean another crucial step up our footballing equivalent of 'Steep Hill'—but any slip now could see us lose vital ground as the summit draws tantalisingly closer.
Thanks to the win over Mansfield on Tuesday night and other results going our way, we are now serious contenders for automatic promotion. That involved a steep climb of another kind - 156 miles of travel for the away support, but fortunately it was worth it because, as the gaffer said afterwards, it was a "really good points haul" on a tough, tough night. The only downside was Tyreece Campbell coming off injured late in the second half, after adding another goal to his red-hot form of late.
Last time out against Lincoln, we were in a very different place. Back in December when we played out a 0-0 draw up in Sincil Bank, we were literally in the eye of a storm - Storm Darragh. On that drab afternoon when the wind was the star of the show, Lincoln were the form side. Now we're nearly twenty points above them in a division where anybody below Huddersfield and Leyton Orient is probably out of the hunt for promotion at this stage. We're definitely in a great position but as the gaffer also said after Mansfield - "Nothing is achieved yet. Nothing is decided – we just keep fighting.”
It remains a tough ask to catch Wrexham but in fact we do go there on a very historic day at the end of April – 26th April -78 years since we won the FA cup with a 1-0 win over Burnley. The way things are looking, we could have Wembley in our sights again because, even if we don't make the automatic places, we should be odds on for the top five. Maybe third place would be best if we don't capture second. That way we would most likely avoid one of Wrexham/Wycombe or Stockport.
But perhaps that's getting too far ahead of ourselves for now. We have to take it one step at a time starting with Lincoln on Saturday. An examination of their results this season shows that, despite being in a comfortable twelfth place, they have had very little impact when playing top six teams. Also, remember that it's a regular 3pm kick-off after last Saturday's early doors which was definitely worth getting up for. Let's hope his injury is nothing serious at this stage and that we see some more of “Storm Tyreece” this weekend.
In the 1980/81 season, Mike Bailey's Charlton team achieved eight consecutive home wins on their way to promotion. If Nathan Jones's team prevail on Saturday, we believe they will set a new club record of nine home wins in succession.