As the old saying goes, there are three kinds of lies – lies, damned lies and statistics.

I thought of this when Wycombe manager Matt Bloomfield was criticised on social media this week because his team has won only one of their last 14 league games.

Ahead of the visit of Lincoln City to Adams Park on Saturday, January 13, Bloomfield’s detractors have used the statistic to argue that he has been a failure as manager and should be replaced.

No one at Wanderers is pretending that the first half of the season was anything other than disappointing, but it was nowhere near as bad as some people would have you believe.

Statistics can be used to ‘prove’ whatever you want them to prove and in that run of fourteen games the Chairboys suffered just six defeats, which tells a much more encouraging story.

No fewer than eight of Wycombe’s 25 league games have ended in stalemate, and only Charlton Athletic (nine) have drawn more games in League One.

It is evidence that Bloomfield’s team has become difficult to beat, a fact underlined by six of their 10 defeats being by just a single goal margin.

However, they now need wins to climb the table and following the excellent 3-2 victory over Bristol Rovers in the last home game, hopes are high that they can collect another three points against Lincoln.

The visitors have the advantage of not having played since New Year’s Day because last week’s scheduled opponents Shrewsbury Town were involved in the FA Cup.

The Imps are five places higher than the Chairboys in the table, but they lost their last two away games against Derby County and Blackpool, and they are the lowest scorers in the top half with just 29 goals in twenty-eight games.

The clubs have met 26 times in league games with Lincoln winning 10 of the previous encounters to Wycombe’s eight victories.

They comfortably beat Wanderers in the reverse fixture at the start of the season, scoring three goals in the last 20 minutes without reply, but they have won only once in their last seven visits to Adams Park.