Accrington Stanley vs Lincoln City Predictions

• Only four teams have scored more home goals than Accrington this season, who’re the second-highest home scorers outside of the top six.
• Lincoln have scored an average of just 0.76 goals away from home during the current campaign.
• Accrington have scored an average of 1.87 goals in front of a home crowd this term.

Stanley on the up

Accrington may not be in the most flattering league position, but all things considered, they’re not doing too badly. John Coleman’s men are a comfortable 13 points above the drop-zone, while thanks to recent back-to-back wins, they’re moving towards the top half, even if they are still some way off.

Competing against the top teams may not be Stanley’s speciality, but over the last couple of weeks, they’ve proved that they can take care of opposition near themselves in the table, beating Wimbledon and then Shrewsbury, scoring twice on both occasions.

Scoring goals is something that has come easy to this Accrington side at home. Saturday’s hosts have notched 27 goals in 14 matches at Crown Ground, scoring two or more in eight of those 14. They’ve also scored two or more in five of their eight home matches against teams that currently reside in 12^th or lower.

Lincoln out of form

The biggest compliment that can be paid to the Imps at present is that they’re nowhere near going down, though that doesn’t mean that they’ve done anything of note. It was never going to be a quick fix under Michael Appleton, so it’s just as well that the ex-Oxford boss took over when Lincoln were never really in danger of dropping into the bottom three.

It did look as though Lincoln had solved some of their problems a little while back, especially in the final third, as they scored in six straight games around the turn of the year, though they’ve since dropped off in that respect, scoring just two goals in their last five, and it’s not by chance that their dip in scoring form has coincided with the loss of top scorer Tyler Walker, who was recalled by Nottingham Forest last month.

A lack of goals has often been a problem for Lincoln this season, but more so on their travels. The Imps are comfortably averaging less than a goal per game on the road, while they’ve scored in only three of their last six travelling matches, scoring more than once at no point during that time. Not only have Lincoln struggled in terms of goals scored but keeping teams out away from home has been an issue too. They’re without a clean sheet on the road since the first week in December, while they’ve shut out their opponents in just two out of 14.

Home goals on the cards

In the betting, ‘Accrington to Score Over 1.5 Goals’ catches the eye. Accrington have been very good offensively at home this season, while the visitors haven’t offered much in the way of defensive resistance on their travels. Even if they’ve not been hammered all that often, Lincoln have shipped two or more on seven occasions and have done so against three teams that are close to Stanley in the table. Moreover, the hosts have often made light work of scoring multiple home goals against bottom-half teams. The fact that Stanley rank as the fourth-best team in terms of shots on target for at home also bodes well.

‘Correct Score’ punters can try a 2-1 win for the hosts, who’ve scored exactly twice on six occasions at Crown Ground this term. The visitors have lost by two goals to one in three of their away losses against bottom-half teams, while they’ve notched exactly once in defeat on a further three occasions.