Inigo Calderon has declared that a win for Bristol Rovers away at Lincoln City on Saturday would be the “cherry on the cake” after a huge week that massively boosted the Gas’ League One survival hopes.
Victories at home to play-off chasers Huddersfield Town and Bolton Wanderers within the space of four days have put Rovers nine points clear of the relegation zone with 10 games remaining. Although survival hasn’t yet been achieved, it was a major step in the right direction.
The Gas’ strong home form has been what has kept them out of the bottom four with Rovers’ record on the road the third-worst in the division having won just three away matches all season.
Now, ahead of heading up to Lincoln this weekend, Calderon has confessed that a rare away win would wrap up a great week perfectly.
“It would be the cherry on the cake because it’s been coming,” the Rovers head coach told Bristol Live. “I think that game against Shrewsbury was the turning point because [against] Wycombe and Northampton we were not good. I think that day was much better, even though we didn’t get the three points. But it was a turning point for me.
“I watched them [Lincoln],” the Spaniard added. “Not too much, but when we do the post-match, I always try to connect with the next one and so I have to watch them a little bit. For instance, if they play with a back-five and on Tuesday we played against a back-five then it makes sense to show that. So I have to have a look at how they play if I can bring something from the last game to the next one.
“But it’s true that it’s a bit different to both. It’s a bit different to Huddersfield. I think they are a bit more direct, more set pieces-wise or maybe they’re not going to play as much as Bolton tried.
“So it’s going to be a bit different. [A] difficult one, especially as we say about the set-pieces, it’s a big threat for them. So we have to try to prepare for that.”
Looking at the table, most would suggest that the Imps have little to play for now this season. Sat in 13th place, Michael Skubala’s side are 14 points off of the play-off positions and 13 points clear of the relegation zone with 10 matches remaining.
The hope for Rovers will be that their hosts have the commonly used at this time in the season ‘on the beach’ mentality as they look to win three consecutive games in League One for the first time since October 2022.
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Naturally though, that also comes with an potential alternative danger with players looking to play for pride and, in some cases, their futures.
“I remember when I was a player in Spain, you always looked at the last 10 fixtures of each team, and the teams that are like Lincoln, you are happy to play against them because they don’t have anything to play for,” Calderon smiled. “So in theory, it is an easier game. But here in England, it does not work like that.
“Even the last game, if a team is not playing for anything, they will still try to fight which is great. That’s great for football.
“I don’t know them that much to know how they are or what’s in their minds but they probably don’t have any pressure so they will be free to play.”