Rovers have announced their third pre-season friendly – which looks set to be their final one before the start of the 2022/23 campaign.

Lincoln City will be the opposition for the game at the LNER Stadium which will take place on Saturday, July 23 (3pm).

It is the third friendly of Rovers’ schedule to be announced, with games at Celtic (July 16) and Hartlepool United (July 20) and now Lincoln within a seven-day run.

With the season set to start on Saturday, July 30, to incorporate a mid-season break for the World Cup in Qatar, Rovers’ friendlies look set to conclude with the trip to face the Imps.

A home friendly for Rovers always appeared unlikely with the since-postponed Summer Fest having been scheduled for the final week of this month.

The club will spend time away from their Brockhall base as they prepare for the upcoming season, plans which were drawn up prior to the departure of Tony Mowbray.

The sides met in the summer of 2018 when a Joe Nuttall goal separated the two sides. They then met in the Carabao Cup a month later, with Rovers running out 4-1 winners at Ewood Park.

Lincoln announced Mark Kennedy as their new manager last week, replacing former Rovers boss Michael Appleton who left at the end of the season and seems primed to replace Gary Bowyer at Salford City.

The Imps were beaten play-off finalists in 2020/21, but finished 17th last term.

It will be a return to his former club for Tayo Edun who moved to Rovers last summer from the Imps for a fee in the region of £450,000.

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