It's now time for the game that was personal

By Nathan Jackson
January 25 2007

A few weeks ago the home match against Peterborough was eagerly antipated, but then Keith Alexander left London Road. It's a game that City go into knowing that they must win to maintain an automatic promotion push, but will have a difficult time against a different looking Peterborough.

Just a few weeks ago, it seemed that this game would see the largest attendance at Sincil Bank this season. It was a game that watered the mouths of a lot of Imps fans, and promised to be an intense atmosphere. Then Keith Alexander left by mutual consent (or if you want the real term, he was sacked) and the whole feel of the game just disappeared. Now it’s just a case of showing all the ex-Lincoln players what they could have achieved.

On December 23^rd, you could tell how much it meant to the fans to “get one over” on Keith Alexander, but now this game just seems like any other game to Lincoln fans, but that might work in our advantage. The players already know how to beat Peterborough after the London Road side only managed one shot on target against us. I wonder what the odds on Amoo scoring again are?

However, one thing that would be true even if we were only playing Torquay, Accrington Stanley or Rochdale, is that with all our automatic promotion rivals having games they should win, this becomes a MUST win for the Imps if we have any hopes of maintaining an automatic promotion push, otherwise it could mean yet another trip to the playoffs.

City welcome back Mark Stallard from suspension and he will more than likely go straight back into the side, although if Weir-Daley keeps him out then it will be no surprise as the loanee played well at Bury. The rest of the team will more than likely stay the same with the new players more than likely having to settle for a place on the bench.

The only debating point really is who to have in central defence. Nat Brown has a seemingly guaranteed place in the side at the minute, so that just leaves either Moses or Morgan fighting for the remaining place. If I had to guess, I’d say Moses will probably be the one picked.

Marriott

Beevers   Brown  Moses    Mayo

Amoo    Kerr  Frecklington  Hughes

Forrester   Stallard

 

 It would be a bit of an understatement to say that Peterborough have hit a spot of bother in recent weeks. After winning 4 league games in a row, they’ve gone on to lose 9 out of the last 11 in the league, winning just the once and even that was only against Rochdale.

The season started relatively well for Keith Alexander’s men, but then in September they suddenly ran into some problems, and the knives were out for Alexander. However winning 6 from 8 seemed to push Peterborough back in the hunt for automatic promotion before their recent slump in form. That run in form saw Alexander sacked (or mutual consent you prefer) and then Darren Ferguson surprisingly took over as manager.

Peterborough have a half-decent squad and the team could be fairly different from the one that faced Lincoln just before Christmas. Keith invested a lot of money in new players, and now Darren Ferguson could change the whole dynamic of the Posh in what will be his first match in charge of the London Road side.