David Wetherall admits that Lincoln will never be "just another game".

The City skipper will try to do his usual professional job when the whistle sounds on Wednesday afternoon.

But he knows it will be impossible to treat the day as a normal match.

He said: "There are certain games when other things are happening on the periphery, when you tend to think of it as just another match and concentrate on that.

"When it's Lincoln, and particularly the first time they've been back in the league since the fire, then you could never say that.

"Come kick-off time then it becomes your job but you can't just think of this as another day at the office. It's going to be different to normal and it should be.

"With what happened on that day, it will always be different and it should be marked as such. I'm sure everyone who comes to the game will mark it in the right way."

Wetherall was 14 at the time of the Valley Parade fire and growing up in Sheffield but the events across Yorkshire hit him as hard as any football fan.

"I remember seeing it on TV and it had a big effect on me," he added. "But obviously there will be a lot of people here today who were there and directly involved - and a lot who lost loved ones and friends in the tragedy.

"At the time it hit everybody connected with football. A disaster on such a scale was unprecedented.

"It affected the nation as a whole because it was one of those things when you could imagine yourself being there. It could really have happened anywhere with football grounds as they were at that time.

"When you come to the club and have been here a little while, you realise it is a day that is deeply ingrained in the history. It is marked every year by the service in the city centre and will always be remembered by people who care about the club and rightly so."

Stuart McCall, whose father Andy suffered bad burns, found it emotional when the sides played earlier in the season at Sincil Bank. And he is prepared for another very difficult afternoon.

The City boss said: "I thought the tributes before the first game were very touching and it will be very emotional again.

"No doubt people who were at the game in 1985 will visualise maybe where they were that day and what's gone on since.

"As much as you say it's just a game of football, there are so many other factors beforehand which mean that it is anything but."

McCall is likely to switch formations from Saturday and revert to two up front, with Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu hoping for a recall.

Negotiations are on-going with Gillingham over his loan, which runs out next Tuesday, as well as the other players whose contracts are shortly up.

Kyle Nix, who has scored in the last two games, should be receiving good news about a new deal before his New Year's Eve deadline.

McCall added: "He knows how well we think he's done for us. It's all on-going and we'll iron out the deals within the next week."

Willy Topp, who travelled with the squad on Saturday, could get his first involvement on the bench.

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