End 37 years and playoffs are there for the taking
By Nathan Jackson
February 23 2006
Lincoln City will be aiming to end a run of 37 years without defeating Notts County at home and also move into the playoffs. In form City meet collapsing County on Saturday afternoon and IF the Imps do manage to win, there is a high likelyhood that the Imps will move into the playoffs.
For me personally, it is a family affair on Saturday as my half-sister is a Notts County fan and she will be hoping to see her team's 9th win over the Imps out of the 9 games between the club's that she has seen. City have an absolutly miserable record against the Magpies but if City can manage to break Notts County's 37 year hold over Sincil Bank, the Imps will move into a prime position to move into the playoff places for the first time all season. City remain unbeaten since December 28th and if City do manage to achieve a maximum against County, it will be City's first local derby victory of the season. Both sides have had relatively disappointing seasons so far and whilst City have been gradually improving on a poor start, County have been slowly sliding down the table after topping the table in August. Nat Brown is suspended for the Imps after picking up a 5th yellow card in last Saturday's 1-1 draw at Macclesfield. The absense of Brown could signal a return for Luke Foster who mysteriously disappeared a few weeks ago, although Frecklington will be the obvious choice as a replacement. The bad news is that Keith might be tempted to play Ollie Ryan after the young striker somehow defied the odds to score in the midweek reserve game, however, many fans feel that Gary Birch deserves a chance to start a game after recent excellent performance. Martin Gritton is starting to prove unpopular with the fans after several, non-existent performances and he is favourite to make way for Birch. Who I think will start (Right to left) Marriott Cyran McAuley McCombe Hughes Frecklington S/Robinson Kerr Green Birch Yeo Notts County already have a disadvantage going into Saturday's match as captain, Julien Baudet is suspended and it was the frenchman who scored the winning goal in the fixture at Meadow Lane earlier in the season. One other man who definatly won't feature is Gavin Gordon. The former Imps' striker left the Magpies just over a month ago and despite being linked with a move back to Sincil Bank, he has now relegated himself down into the non-league. County have slowly been slipping out of the promotion picture all together and after spending the early season as one of the promotion favourites, many County's fans aspirations go as far as finishing in the top 10. 7 points off the playoffs at this point of the season is probably more than Notts County can catch up on and if they do achieve that top 10 position, it would be a significant improvement on last season's 19th. Right, this might take a bit of explaining for those who have never seen one of these. Basically, this is a results table and shows exactly how many of each type of result the opposition have had. Notts County's score is on the top row and the oppositions is on the vertical line. An example is that Notts County have had four 0-0 draws, three 2-1 victories and a 4-0 defeat.
|
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 | |
|
0 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
|
1 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
|
2 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
|
3 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |