Lincoln boss Chris Sutton said recently that his job will only start next season, after he has secured the Red Imps League status for 2010-11.
Sutton, the ex-Blackburn, Chelsea, Celtic and England striker is in his first managerial appointment at Sincil Bank and has his ex-Blackburn teammate Ian Pearce, also formerly of West Ham and Fulham, alongside him as assistant.
It is understood that the former Premier pair have also invested in the club, so they have a fair deal at stake in the club.
They came in at the start of October, taking over from Peter Jackson, the former Huddersfield boss and ex-Newcastle and Bradford player, whose tenure with the Red Imps was interrupted by a period suffering from throat cancer.
Fully recovered, Jackson was unable to arrest a winless streak at the start of this campaign, which included a 3-0 reversal here at Victoria Road.
Now after three months at the helm, Sutton's side shows signs of turning the corner, as they have moved away from the foot of the table and Lincoln lying in 19th place entertain Daggers giving an indication that recent form can lift them to safety before the end of the campaign.
The Reds Imps had a run of three wins on the trot, culminating in last Saturday's impressive 2-1 defeat of Bradford City, before having the streak ended at Burton on Wednesday night, when the Brewers beat them 1-0 at the Pirelli Stadium.
For Lincoln to struggle at all, is all a long way from the Red Imps at the beginning of the decade. Then, under the guidance of now Macclesfield boss Keith Alexander, they reached four consecutive play-offs between 2002 and 2005.
Unfortunately, they created Football League play-off history, by losing all four - two in finals at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium against Bournemouth and Southend, when beaten in extra time. There were also two semi-final losses - to Huddersfield and to local rivals Grimsby, who beat them 3-1 on aggregate, the Red Imps having thrashed the Mariners 5-0 just a few weeks earlier in a league clash.
Our own Peter Gain, six years a Red Imp and who made 224 appearances in their red and white striped shirts, had the heartache of playing in all four of those losing play-off deciders.
The greatest Lincoln side of the post-war era was undoubtedly the one assembled by former England boss Graham Taylor in the mid 1970s, when the former Grimsby and Lincoln full-back was forced to retire from playing at 28, while a player at Sincil Bank.
Lincoln gave him his first coaching and managerial roles and he repaid them by winning promotion from the old Fourth Division, amassing a massive 74 points in a season when only two points were awarded for a victory.
The feat was achieved in a season when the Red Imps scored a phenomenal 111 goals and won 21 of their 23 home games - the other two were draws - and still stands as a record today, as the most points ever accumulated under the two point system.
When Taylor was tempted away by Elton John and Watford to find further success as boss of the Hornets, Aston Villa (twice) and he also managed Wolves and of course, England, Lincoln's brief glory days ended, but many of his former Red Imps of the day went into coaching and management, preaching his methods and several are still involved today.
The modern Lincoln are a different proposition, but new manager Sutton has made great use of his Premier contracts, making Adam Watts a young defender with Fulham his first signing on taking over and following it up with three further ex-Cottagers in defender Joe Anderson, midfielder Matt Saunders and forward Michael Uweza.
Aston Villa is also proving a happy hunting ground for Sutton. He has impressive Australian Chris Herd is on loan from Villa Park and Sutton hopes to make the midfielder's move permanent and he has also loaned the tall central defender Nathan Baker from the Midlanders, while another Lincoln stalwart Paul Green, is also ex-Villa.
Cian Hughton, son of the Newcastle manager and a former Tottenham youngster has signed a deal to the end of the season after impressing, while upfront the much-travelled Delroy Facey, who has had 10 League clubs, mostly notably Huddersfield, Bolton and West Bromwich on his CV, is putting in an impressive shift upfront.
Daggers assistant boss Terry Harris hasn't ruled out the club moving for a new player before the transfer window closes at the end of the month or the making of changes to a side that has been a fairly unchanged line-up in recent weeks.
In the light of four losses in the last five games, that could mean recalls for the likes of Jon Nurse, Wes Thomas or Darren Currie or new faces Romain Vincelot or Phil Walsh might be given an outing.
Left-back Jamie Day plays his last game of his two month loan from Peterborough, which runs out the following day, as Daggers take a full squad to Sincil Bank.
Lincoln (likely team): Burch, Anderson, Baker, Watts, Hughton, Green, Herd, Kerr, Keltie, Gilmour, Facey. Subs;- Musselwhite, Swaibu, Clarke, Hone, John-Lewis, Connor, Uweza.
Dagenham & R: from:- Roberts, Ogogo, Doe, Arber, Day, Vincelot, Walsh, Green, Spiller, Pack, Gain, Currie, Nurse, Montgomery, Benson, Scott, Thomas.
Referee: Scott Mathieson
