Keith Hill’s Rochdale are back on the road and we give you a short preview on what is definitely an important game for both sides.

Rochdale head to Sincil Bank tomorrow with a boost of, what will seem like, three new signings for Hill. Rene Howe is available again having been unable to play a part in the game against his parent club, Peterborough United, last Saturday.

Rory McArdle (pictured) returns from International duty having picked up his 18^th cap for the Northern Ireland U21s in a 2-1 European Championship qualifier defeat to Israel.  

And last, but not least, is the genuinely new signing Chris Basham, who is available for selection having joined us on loan from Bolton Wanderers yesterday.

The signing of the 6 ft 3 holding midfielder Basham is something that Hill is pleased certainly pleased with. “He is a good body and will be a good acquisition for the football club. It adds to the competition for places and I’m sure that he will live up to the challenge”. 

There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that every game is a cup final now if we are to be serious challengers for… well that doesn’t need to be said, you don’t know which gods might be watching.

And this is another game where Hill will have to change the way things work at Rochdale. A bit like with when we go to Mansfield. Dale haven’t done winning at Lincoln for a while a bit like we hadn’t at Field Mill until Hill put an end to that. 

Infact, Lincoln v Dale is a fixture that Dale haven’t won even once in their last nine attempts over in Lincoln’s neck of the woods. Infact, ironic as it might well be, the last time Dale won at Sincil Bank was on the 3^rd May 1997.

Dale won 2-0 that day, with now manager Keith Hill getting the ball running on the 77^th minute and Mark Stuart completing the scoring on the 82^nd minute mark. 

Since then, we’ve come up against Lincoln nine times at Sincil Bank, drawing 7 (SEVEN) times with The Imps and losing only on two occasions. Unfortunately one of them defeats happened to be last season, when Dale were well and truly spanked 7-1 with a decent goal by Goodall being the one and only straw we could clutch that day. 

Speaking ahead of tomorrow's game, Hill was quick to pay his respects to a side that’s enjoying a rise in form recently… "Lincoln are a good side and they are probably in a false position. The players there look as though they have a bit of belief so it is going to be a difficult game for us.” 

"At this stage of the season it is all about points. Everything is now about amassing as big a total as possible. We have a lot of games still to play and it is all about points and finishing above where we did last season." 

The formbook looks like the following heading into this game:

Dale’s form: L W W W W L W

Lincoln’s form: W W L W L W D

So wherever you go out to tonight after work, make sure not to tweak too much as we really do need this amazing away run to continue for as long as possible. 

As usual the rest of the build up will be on at some point tonight, and you’ll always find it linked to the matchday thread on the Dale Letters Page message board.

Photo: Action Images

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