City need to keep the points rolling in if promotion quest isn’t to go west.

I’ve said many times that Lincoln City are creating big match atmospheres home or away but in the position they occupy now, at the top of the league it’s more so as the lesser lights look to put one over on the leaders.

Not that you could describe Exeter City thus. They of course put the Imps out of the playoffs only to fail at Wembley and they will be sure to be more than keen that it is they and not the Imps who prevail on Saturday. A draw, I would suggest would be more than satisfactory but I don’t expect Danny and Nicky Cowley to subscribe to that view.

City will take the now well trodden path to Exeter via Bristol City and it’s still a source of pride to me that the Imps have friends in such high places prepared to lend their training facility. I wonder how long it will be before a club asks a favour of us on their way to Scunthorpe or Doncaster or Rotherham. Then we’d know we’d arrived.

Exeter have survived the loss of their manager without breaking stride and, at this early stage it looks like they, City and MK Dons will be vying for the automatic places and not Notts County despite their taking swift action to replace their manager.

I’ve got to say Harry Kewell did not strike me as the dream ticket, if that’s who it’s to be both in terms of the football his team played and the league position and, whilst he’s a big name and that seems to matter to County it’s nowhere near the coup it seemed when Notts landed Kevin Nolan but we saw how that panned out. At least Danny Cowleys name was not touted as a contender this time, I was thankful for that. Maybe people realised Lincoln to Notts was not quite the leap it might have been a while ago.

So the press conference has been held, the bags packed and City head off to prepare for yet another big game. I keep repeating this because it’s a source of wonder to me. City have been a league club for a lot longer than they haven’t but it seems the big time is where the Imps are and every week that goes by seems to confirm that, for the moment at least City are under the big lights and are staying there for the foreseeable future.