Following an emphatic 4-1 home win over Burnley, the Imps once again get the chance to play in front of their home faithful as they welcome Birmingham City to the ProAmpac Stadium on Saturday 31 October (12.30pm)
Read all the pre-match thoughts of both Chris Cohen and George Wickens as well as all the key stats and information ahead of the clash with the Blues.
Opposition Information
Chris Davies’ side have made a good start to their second campaign back in the Sky Bet Championship after earning promotion from the third tier during the 2024/25 season. After just 12 games of the new season, the Blues find themselves in a handy seventh place, amassing 20 points whilst only falling to defeat twice and picking up five wins along the way. However, one of those losses came in their most recent fixture as they headed to South Wales to face Cardiff City and came away on the wrong side of a 1-0 scoreline after prior going five games unbeaten. Four of the games in that run saw them emerge victorious with wins against Derby, West Brom, Preston and QPR and they also split the spoils with league leaders, Middlesbrough.
A new face who has contributed heavily to his side’s positive start is Canadian-international, Liam Millar, a loanee from Premier League side, Hull City. He is Birmingham’s most recent acquisition after being announced on Deadline Day having already featured three times for the Tigers including when scoring the winner in Hull’s 1-0 win over Coventry City. Since joining the Blues, Millar has made eight appearances and contributed to seven goals through four goals and three assists which includes a brace when welcoming QPR to St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park.
One man who is not a new face in the West Midlands is Demarai Gray who has also started the season in good form. Gray is heading into the second campaign of his second spell with the club having been there as a youngster between 2013 and 2016 before moving to a range of clubs including Leicester where he spent five years as well as Bayer Leverkusen, Everton and Al-Ettifaq. Last season he ended with five goals and six assists after featuring in 39 games with this season his goal tally already stands at four after making an appearance in just 11 games.
Chris Cohen said: “Chris [Davies] always sets his teams up incredibly well, you just need to look at the players coming off the bench, he’s obviously got lots of players at his disposal that are more than capable of competing and thriving at this level so we know the challenge that we’re going to face.”
A first home success
After a couple of frustrating results, Saturday saw City earn their first win at the ProAmpac Stadium in brilliant style as they came from a goal behind to beat Burnley 4-1 and Chris Cohen spoke about what the win meant to the coaching staff and also what he hopes the fans now feeling heading into another tough game at home.
He said: “For us to perform like that against Burnley we had to be at our absolute best, nothing is ever perfect but that was a wonderful 90 minutes for us.
“The biggest part of it for me and Tom was that the supporters have stuck by us, we’ve had some tough home games, but they’ve just stayed with us because of the effort the lads have put in and the application so it was lovely to give them a home win.”
George Wickens’ Thoughts
Since joining City in 2024, Wickens has made 99 appearances between the sticks and is expected to make his 100th on Saturday as City host the Blues. He spoke about his time at the club so far and how he feels he's developed as a player and a person.
Wickens said: “I’m very proud to the reach the milestone on Saturday, it was a tough decision to leave Fulham at the time but I knew that to take the next step in my career, I had to go and play football so to come here and reach 100 games is great and I feel like I’ve been on an upward trajectory.”
He added: “I feel like I’ve developed both on and off the pitch, I feel a lot more consistent and steady, I think that’s an important thing for a goalkeeper and off the pitch I’ve defintely matured a lot in the last couple of years, I’ve learnt a lot especially in my first season and that’s now showing on the pitch.”
H2H
The last time these two sides met in Lincoln was on Saturday 19 October 2024, almost exactly two years ago when Birmingham City came from behind to claim a 3-1 victory in Sky Bet League One. The Imps made a dream start as Bailey Cadamarteri found the back of the net inside the opening minute, but Keshi Anderson levelled for the visitors in the 14th minute. Willum Thor Willumsson put Birmingham ahead shortly after the break, before Reeco Hackett saw his penalty saved by Ryan Allsop with 20 minutes remaining. Anderson then grabbed his second of the afternoon in the 79th minute to seal all three points for the Blues.
The Imps enjoyed a memorable victory over Birmingham City when the two sides met in Lincolnshire on Saturday 26 March 1910. City came out on top in an entertaining five-goal encounter, securing a 3-2 win in Division Two. The result was Lincoln's fourth successive league victory, following wins over Stockport County, Glossop North End and Wolverhampton Wanderers, as the Imps continued an impressive run of form towards the end of the 1909/10 campaign.
Match information
As always at the ProAmpac Stadium, City will sport their home thread - you can get yours HERE.
The match referee will be Lewis Smith with his assistants being Daniel Leach and Johnathon Bickerdike and the fourth official for the 12.30pm kick-off will be Robert Massey-Ellis.
Legendary broadcaster, John Helm, will be joined by Dean West to provide the commentary for Imps + as the Imps clash with the Blues - check out your streaming options HERE.
