Oh great, Darlington are coming!

By Nathan Jackson
December 21 2007

I hate it when we play Darlington for the simply reason that we virtually never ever beat them. If the tag "bogey side" could be assigned to a side then Lincoln's would definitely go to the Quakers. City have lost 3 of the last 4 meetings between the sides and have record just one win in recent times, a 3-0 win at the What-they-calling-it-this-year arena in 04/05. City will have their hands full.

That 3-0 win is the only time I've seen us beat Darlington, the rest of the time we've either drawn against them or lost. I'll admit that I hate it when we play Darlington because I basically go into the game thinking that anything we get will be a bonus. Peter Jackson doesn't have a particularly great record against Darlington, winning one and losing one of his games against them with Huddersfield.

City go into the game in some decent form having 3 of the last 4 games, whereas Darlington haven't played for several weeks, although winning their game in hand will see them up to second place. Anyone going into this game expection a repeat scoreline of our win against Barnet will more than likely go home disappointed.

In our most difficult home game since the Chesterfield game back on November 6th, we will have to contend with one of the best squads in the division. Pawel Abbott, Martin Smith and Julian Joachim are just 3 of the players in Darlington colours that could just walk into the side of any of their divisional rivals.

The Quakers go into the game on the back of a run of no defeats since November 3rd. Their last game was also an away game in Lincolnshire, thumping Grimsby 4-0. That clean sheet barely came as a surprise as they've recorded an impressive 12 clean sheets, a fact that goes a long way to contributing to their mammoth +20 goal difference.

The team that started that game at Grimsby was Stockdale, Purdie, Foster, White, Ridley, Joachim, Cummins, Ravenhil, Foran, Blundell and Wright.

City go into the game with a rumoured virus striking two members of the squad, including Ben Wright. However, on the assumption that rumour will come to nothing it looks likely that the Imps will be unchanged from the 4-1 thumping of Barnet.

That would mean Smith in goal, with Warlow, Hone, Bencharif and Green in defence. Kerr and Frecklington will more than likely play with Louis Dodds and N'Guessan either side of them with Forrester and Wright up front.

A win for the Imps could move them up to 18th, and given that we're playing two of our relegation rivals after Darlington, we stand a great chance of being well clear of the drop zone come 2008.

Oh, and Merry Christmas everyone.