Imps aim for three-of-a-kind against Bradford

City return to Sincil Bank hoping to achieve a third straight victory, this time against a strong Bradford team. The Imps have put in two unconvincing performances and yet come out with six points from their last two games, but we will face a far better team than the likes of Accrington Stanley and Notts County on boxing day.

Two wins and six points in the last few weeks have seen the Imps move to within a few points of the Playoffs, however let's not get carried away though because both performances weren't worthy of three points. We were absolutely awful for 68 minutes against Accrington Stanley and yet the five goals made it seem as though we dominated. The same could really be said for Notts County, City were again awful for all but five minutes and only won because the Magpies couldn't hit a barn door.

Although we do have several games coming up where we can have a good shout of getting a lot of points, we'll first have to face one of the current chasers for promotion. Our record against the current Top 7 isn't exactly great, Bradford being the only team we haven't faced. The results in the other six games have seen us lose on four occasions (Wycombe, Bury, Exeter and Darlington) and drawing the other two (Brentford and Shrewsbury). So even if we do make the Playoffs, our record against our potential opponents isn't good.

City's line up will have to be changed from the one that took to the field at Meadow Lane. Rob Burch is aiming for a second clean sheet in a row and he will have three of the usual four suspects in front him of, with Paul Green's injury preventing him from taking part. It is likely that Green will be replaced by Frank Sinclair, former player of Bradford's local rivals, Huddersfield Town.

The news that Stefan Oakes hadn't been fit enough to train during the week came as a shock to no-one, but it is rated as likely that he will play on Boxing Day and that could see him partner Frecklington, Kerr and LJL in the midfield. The fact that City's form has suddenly got better since Dany N'Guessan fell out of the team should hopefully see the Frenchman stay on the bench.

Up front we will be missing Ben Wright because of an injury picked up against Notts County, meaning that the front duo will be leading goalscorer Adrian Patulea and Sam Mullarkey. With the news that Geoff Horsfield is likely to sign with the Imps, we aren't likely to see David Graham in a City shirt again.

Bradford are chasing promotion but aren't living up to their claims that they will walk the League. They are currently nine points behind the leaders but level on points with the automatic promotion places. It says it all that the difference between victory and defeat could see them either go second or fall to ninth, that's how tight it is up the top.

They have managed back-to-back victories on four occasions this season but are currently on a four game winless run, the longest winless run of their season. They lost to Leyton Orient in the FA Cup before successive home draws with Dagenham and Chester sandwiching a 2-1 defeat at Brentford.

Lincoln could go ninth with victory.