Michael Appleton has enjoyed his side's impressive start to the season which currently sees the Imps sit second in Sky Bet League One following opening victories over Oxford United, MK Dons and Charlton Athletic.
But the City boss insists the hard work won’t stop as his side have a number of tough games on the horizon, starting this weekend when Lincoln travel to Blackpool’s Bloomfield Road.
“We will continue to improve,” said Michael.
“We are nowhere near where we would like to be, and I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way. This is the start and hopefully we will become successful over the next few years, we have a lot of young players who will play their part in that.
“I am delighted with our performances and the results but as a group we are just starting out. It is reward for how hard the lads have worked, we will look to continue these performances, but we have a reality that there will be some tough periods throughout the season.”
The Imps have had two of their players called up to Wales’ international setups, with Brennan Johnson featuring in Ryan Giggs’ senior camp and Aaron Lewis representing the U21 side.
Appleton congratulated the latest City recruit, who made his debut in Lincoln’s 2-0 win over Charlton at the weekend: “We are delighted for Brennan, hopefully he will make the bench because he is a talented player.”
Michael continued by discussing Aaron Lewis who is yet to feature for Lincoln this season following a period out injured.
“Aaron has trained for a week now, he would have featured against Mansfield, but he’s been called up to play for Wales, so hopefully he will get some game time with them. It will probably do him good to get some minutes on the pitch.”
The Imps have a busy schedule coming up with league action against Blackpool, followed by an EFL Trophy game on Tuesday against Mansfield.
Michael believes the cup game will be a good opportunity for players to get minutes where needed.
“We will do all we can to give the lads minutes against Mansfield, but we will also do all we can to get the result because we respect the competition.”
The City boss finished by turning his attention to Saturday’s fixture, praising Blackpool as a tough opposition with Neil Critchley in charge: “They will be right up there at some point; it will be a very tough game. They have spent some money; that’s been well reported, they have a new manager and there are some relatively new owners at the club.
“When I saw the opening few fixtures, I thought it was a tough start, so if we can come through the next few games in a good position, this will set us up for the season.
“Blackpool have a lot of quality in their squad, we will see that over the 46 games this season.
"We will approach the game on Saturday with the same manner we have all our other games this season and we are hoping for the same outcome as our previous league matches.”
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