Familiar faces drop by as City aim for a win

By Nathan Jackson
December 30 2007

After a nightmare Christmas the Imps are right back in the relegation dog fight and need a win against Bury to ease the pressure, and the Shakers are in even worse form than us. Bury have lost their last 6 whereas City have lost their last 3 so something has to give in a game between the Ghost of Lincoln Past vs the General Rubbishness of Christmas Present.

This time 2 years ago City were proving to be a bit inconsistant really, winning a few games here and there but generally sticking to the midtable area. It looked as if the Imps would be forced to work extremely hard to make the Playoffs again, especially given that City hadn't won for over a month at that stage. New Years Day came around and an early Craig Westcarr goal gave the Imps a win. That started a run of just 1 defeat in 11 games and god what we wouldn't give for that sort of run now.

Saturday's defeat at Grimsby confirmed a nightmare Christmas week that had seen the Imps lose to Darlington, Bradford and the Mariners. That came on the back of a run of 3 wins in 4 that seemed to be moving the Imps away from the relegation zone, but that bad win now means that we're right back in it.

City will be hoping to start 2008 a lot better than 2007. This time last year we lost at Macclesfield on the opening day and would only win once in the opening month. It will more than likely be a much changed line-up to the side that started at Macclesfield this time last year. Out of the 11 that started against Macclesfield, Morgan, Nicholson and Hughes are all gone, whilst Stallard and Amoo are injured, with Scott Kerr suspended.

The Imps will hopefully lineup with Marriott in goal. Ben Smith's mistake at Grimsby was the latest in his attempts to avoid keeping a clean sheet. Whether it's him conceding every shot that at his near post, or dropping the ball at striker's feet, he's simply not good enough and I've quite frankly had enough.

In front of (hopefully) Marriott will more than likely be Brown, Moses and Beevers, with the former having a brilliant game against Grimsby. At right back should be Paul Green, obviously depending on whether he's recovered from the injury sustained last week. Alternatively if he hasn't then Bencharif will probably play at CB with Brown moving out on the right.

In midfield Scott Kerr is suspended and N'Guessan is injured. This will more than likely mean rare starts for Warlow and Hand, accompanying Frecklington and Dodds in midfield. As our only two strikers to score in December, Wright and John-Lewis will more than likely be upfront.

Bury have several familiar names in their team, namely Ben Futcher and Paul Morgan. Keith Alexander and Gary Simpson are both in the coaching set up at Gigg Lane so it's no surprise that Bury are linked with virtually every single ex-Lincoln player.

Bury, the first team to score over 1000 in each of the top 4 divisions, are starting to slide into their seemingly annual relegation battle and 6 defeats in a row certainly doesn't help their cause.

Having surprisingly won at MK Dons on the first day, Bury didn't record another League win until they beat Accrington on September 29th. After that they went on an impressive run of 8 games with defeat, including 2 victories at Rochdale in the space of 3 days, something that will please any Bury fan.

Since then the results haven't quite gone their way in the League. A win against Peterborough on November 17th was the last League game they didn't lose. Since then they've lost to Morecambe, Wrexham, Hereford, Chester, Chesterfield and Dagenham, interesting City haven't beaten any of those this season.

Bury currently sit 7 points above the drop zone which is a relatively comfortable gap given the form of the bottom two, but if they don't start winning soon then the point collecting snails that are Mansfield and Wrexham might eventually catch them up.