Imps set to test themselves on the border
By Nathan Jackson
December 8 2006
Lincoln City will quite literally be fighting for 3 points on the Welsh border as they face a trip to Chester City. With part of the ground being in England and the other in Wales, it makes Chester a unique ground to go to and City definitely have a tough test ahead of them.
It's amazing what a difference 90 minutes can make to your season and after Tuesday's dominant performance against Bristol Rovers, Imps' fans are again daring to dream about playing in the 3rd tier of English football for the first time since 1998/9. However, that well earned victory will mean nothing if the Imps lose a 4th straight away game on the road as the Imps travel to Chester City at the weekend.
It is vital that that City don't lose because with the Walsall vs Swindon match, it could be the perfect chance to catch up some of those points on the men from the Bescot as you'd seriously fancy Swindon to get something there, especially as Richard Money just won "Manager of the Month". Even if Walsall win, if City get something it'll extend our gap over Swindon.
City will be hoping for a repeat of the result that happened on this same weekend last season when the Imps came from behind to win 3-1 after Marcus Richardson had given Chester the lead at Sincil Bank. The 3-1 win changed both team's season, for the Imps it was a 3rd game without defeat that would eventually result in just 1 defeat between mid November and mid March, for Chester it was the first defeat a few weeks but one of MANY for weeks on end as they went from challenging for the playoffs to bottom and only Derek Asamoah saved them from relegation.
I must say I'm personally looking forward to this game as the game at Chester last season, was only the 2nd I've missed in 5 years so it will be to revisit the ground for a chance to see my second City win there, although hopefully this game will be more interesting than the 1-0 victory at the very beginning of 2005 that quite literally saw nothing happen until near enough the last minute of injury time.
There are fortunately no fresh injury worries for the Imps with Paul Morgan still the only "regular" first teamer to be definitely out injured but Jeff Hughes is still 75/25% unlikely to being able to play. New signing Richard Kell is likely to start his City career on the bench but is likely to be the only change to the 16 man squad.
Who I think will start (Right to left)
Marriott
Eaden Moses Brown Mayo
Beevers Amoo Frecklington Nicholson
Forrester Stallard
| Accrington Stanley | W 2-0 | ||||||
| Bury | W 3-1 | ||||||
| Hereford United | L 0-2 | ||||||
| Wrexham | L 1-2 | ||||||
| Leeds United | LC | L 0-1 | |||||
| Torquay United | D 2-2 | ||||||
| Swindon Town | L 0-2 | ||||||
| Wycombe Wanderers | L 0-1 | ||||||
| Notts. County | D 0-0 | ||||||
| Grimsby Town | L 0-2 | ||||||
| Milton Keynes Dons | W 2-1 | ||||||
| Macclesfield Town | D 1-1 | ||||||
| Bristol Rovers | W 2-0 | ||||||
| Walsall | D 0-0 | ||||||
| Rochdale | D 0-0 | ||||||
| Hartlepool United | W 2-1 | ||||||
| Barnet | L 0-1 | ||||||
| Stockport County | JP | W 3-0 | |||||
| Darlington | L 0-1 | ||||||
| Clevedon Town | FA | W 4-1 | |||||
| Stockport County | D 1-1 | ||||||
| Shrewsbury Town | L 1-2 | ||||||
| Chesterfield | JP | D 4-4 | |||||
| Bury | FA | D 2-2 | |||||
| Boston United | W 3-1 | ||||||
Looking at that table, it's obvious to see what Chester's problem is and that's positive consistency and whereas they've been stringing defeats and draws together, they've only got back to back wins once and that was at the start of the season but since then, they've definitely struggled for form and are currently however in midtable.
Chester's best player is probably former City target, Greg Blundell who's form has picked up recently. Ex-City man Kevin Sandwith is also highly rated by manager Wright as the former Posh manager stated about the left back, ""Undoubtedly one of the best players in this league at delivering a ball with his left foot, from free-kicks and corners. It was important to us to bring someone like him in." Am I the only one who's struggled to remember any of his apparantly excellent deliveries.
The penultimate opposition to score a hat-trick at Sincil Bank, Lee Steele, joined Chester a few weeks ago and will return from a banning for over-celebrating his equalising goal against Bury last year.