How time at Rangers has prepared Sheffield Wednesday man for Lincoln City test

The Owls lost 3-1 in last season’s corresponding fixture as they were hit by a red hot atmosphere.

Plenty has been spoken of Wednesday’s visit offering a ‘cup final’ feel for League One’s smaller clubs, a notion subscribed to by Owls forward Josh Windass.

“Going to some of the smaller grounds in the league, it reminds me of when I was at Accy, we’d always raise our game for bigger teams coming,” he told The Star. “You’d always have that bit more energy.

“Any footballer wants to play for the biggest teams and the biggest clubs. If you’re a Cambridge player or a Lincoln player, you want to try impress and get a move to the so-called bigger clubs.

“I had the same thing when I was up in Scotland and we used to play at Partick Thistle or Ross County. They’d come out full of energy because they want to beat you, you’re a big scalp.

“We have to go and match that energy and not just rely on the players we’ve got, we have to run harder than every single team. I’d argue we’ve done that in every single game aside from Barnsley when we were really poor.”

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They won’t have it easy against a Lincoln side who are yet to be beaten at home this season – though they’ve drawn four of their five matches – and who won at Ipswich Town last weekend.

Mark Kennedy is a man well-known to Darren Moore, with the two having shared a playing rivalry during their mutual time at Wolves and West Brom respectively.

“He has changed the dynamics at Lincoln,” Moore said. “He has a real togetherness and spirit at the club, which is great to see. He's somebody that has adapted and is learning life in management very, very quickly and getting some wonderful results.

“They were absolutely tactically spot on to get a result at Ipswich because we know it is a place down there where not many will go and get a result. It shows his adaptability and depth of knowledge of the game and opponents.”

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