Tomorrow sees Rovers take on Lincoln City at The Memorial Stadium in what will be the 48th Football League meeting between the sides.
Rovers have won 17 of the previous meetings and Lincoln 20, whilst the other ten games have finished all square. Rovers have scored 55 goals to Lincoln’s 59.
I confess to not being a proper ‘statto’ and some of those who are would say we have met in 51 league games as they would count the two matches the sides played in our one year sojourn in what was then The Conference and our two semi final play off games back in 2007. For 
the record, we did the double over Lincoln in both of those seasons.
First league meetings between the sides took place in 1953/54 when Lincoln were 1-0 winners at Eastville and Rovers 2-1 winners at Sincil Bank. Last season’s meetings saw the game at The Memorial Stadium end in a 1-1 draw while Lincoln were 5-0 winners in the return fixture when Joe Taylor, their on loan striker from Luton, recorded a hat trick.
On the managerial front John Ward, who spent two spells in charge of Rovers, bean his playing career with Lincoln while another former Rovers boss, Bill Dodgin Jnr, played in the league for both clubs
Dodgin is one of more than 30 players to have turned out for both clubs, a list that includes current Rovers players James Wilson and Josh Griffiths.
At least ten players have made their Rovers league debut against Lincoln and they include Alfie Biggs and Gerry Francis. The last Rovers player to make his debut against the side from Sincil Bank was Ryan Woods, in last season’s match at The Mem when he became the 1,000th player to make his Rovers 
league debut.
Tomorrow’s encounter sees both clubs return to league action after last weekend’s First Round FA Cup ties when both sides faced non league opposition.
Rovers, as we know, beat Weston super Mare 3-1 after extra time here at The Mem, while Lincoln were 4-0 away winners against Chesham United in Monday night’s televised tie.
Both sides were drawn away in the Second Round, with Rovers travelling to face Barnsley and Lincoln facing Crawley Town, who visit The Mem next Saturday.
In terms of current league standings, Rovers are in 17th place with 16 points from 13 games while Lincoln are in fifth place having won 24 points from the same number of games.
In terms of recent league form, Rovers have won three and drawn three of their last six matches, while Lincoln have won three, drawn one and lost two of their last six.
Manager Matt Taylor is looking forward to the match and told local reporters; ‘We put in our best performance of the season againstReading two weeks ago and backed that up with a win in last Saturday’s FA Cup tie. We now have back to back home games in the league and the opportunity to pick up points and move up into a mid table league placing.’
It will, no doubt, be a tough match but aren’t they all at this level? It’s taken a while for all of the new players to settle into the club but there have been signs, in recent weeks, that we can look forward to an upturn in result
Time to make The Mem a fortress again and start looking up the table rather than over our shoulders!