Preview | Lincoln City v Swansea City
Swansea City head to the ProAmpac Stadium looking to round off a positive start to the season when they face Lincoln City in the final fixture before the international break.
The Swans entered this round of games sitting second in the Championship table, with 14 points on the table from the 21 available.
Six of those have come courtesy of wins at Stoke City and Derby County, but they face an Imps side sitting just three points behind them in the table.
Lincoln - last season's League One champions - are yet to win at home in the Championship, but they have proved stubborn and effective opponents with four clean sheets and just two defeats from their first seven games.
Team news
The Swans are waiting on the fitness of Josh Key, who continues to be assessed after coming off against Burnley due to a hamstring issue.
Ross Stewart and Cameron Burgess remain sidelined, with the Scotland striker on course to return after the international break.
Vitor Matos otherwise has a fully fit squad to choose from.
Pre-match views
Vitor Matos: “All the games are different. Lincoln are different in many ways, but we've also found that we've played against more vertical or more direct teams and teams playing with a back five.
“It's not the first one, but of course, different players, different personalities, all different dynamics.
“In this league, you have to find different ways to win, and that's something important. I said from the beginning that we need to be consistent in our way and be able to play against every type of opponent. That's what we're going to try.
“We know that we need to do a lot of things right to be able to have success there, while at the same time trying to impose ourselves.
“This is going to be a really hard game in a lot of ways. It's something that we've been working on and analysing to do our best.
“Lincoln have a really specific way of playing. They are really competitive in every situation. They are a team with physicality, proper heart and passion on the pitch, so we need to be ready to match that.”
Chris Cohen: “They’re a top team, have hit a real run of form over the past few months and started the season incredibly well.
“They are a really difficult team to play against. But we know the way that we play and have shown in the past few games that when we hit our flow we’re pretty hard to stop.
“There’s always going to be a question when you’re moving up to a new level, especially a level that quite a few of them haven’t played at, but we've always had real belief in them. Results naturally give them that belief, and the performances have been an absolute bonus as well."
Meet the officials
Anthony Backhouse will be the man in the middle this afternoon.
Backhouse has been an EFL referee since 2017, having become the first Cumbrian official in more than 40 years to be added to the EFL Referee List.
His career highlights to date include taking charge of the 2017 National League play-off Final, serving as fourth official for the 2022 FA Trophy Final and refereeing the FA Vase Final in 2023.
Last season, Backhouse officiated four Swansea matches, including away trips to Sheffield Wednesday, Preston North End and Ipswich Town, as well as our 2-0 home win over Oxford United last December.
He will be assisted by Richard Woodward and Daniel Woodward, while Aaron Bannister will serve as the fourth official.
Remember the last time?
The Swans and the Imps last met at what was then known as Sincil Bank in April 2005 with both sides chasing promotion from League One.
The hosts had play-off aspirations, while Kenny Jackett's visitors were eyeing the automatic places, and the two sides gave as good as they got in a full-blooded encounter.
It had looked set to end all-square, but there would be late heartbreak from the Swans when Peter Gain's cross struck Garry Monk and flew into the net to give Lincoln the spoils.
Prime numbers
9 - Swansea are unbeaten in nine of their last 10 Champonship fixtures.
21 - This will be the first league meeting between the sides in 21 years.
65 - Swansea lead the Championship this season in high turnovers (65) and shot ending high turnovers (14), while only Norwich (103) have recorded more pressed sequences than the Swans (102).