City visit Posh for expected christmas cracker
By Nathan Jackson
December 21 2006
The Imps will make the short trip to Peterborough United on Saturday for one of the more intense games of the season. It is a game that some Imps fans have described as the biggest game of the season but if it wasn't for Ron Atkinson, would we be looking forward to this game?
Over the past few weeks, I've been trying to write an article about Keith's time at the club and what it meant to me personally and I could never quite find the words to describe how much it meant to me that he'd turned this club around. I still fondly remember going to Carlisle on a freezing February night to watch the Imps win 4-1, the playoff wins over Scunthorpe and of course, the playoff final against Bournemouth. Although I was often critical of several things he did, such as unusual substitutions, playing players out of position, dropping in form players and bringing in a load of crap on free transfer (Jude Stirling for example), nothing will ever replace the last 4 years and, in the slighty twisted words of Abba, thank you for the memories.
Right, now all the sentimental stuff is out of the way, the game that everyone has been looking forward this season is here. Ever since Keith made that switch to London Road, all City fans have said that this was the biggest game of the season, not that you'd have guessed it by how few tickets we've sold. Add into that all the ex-players, such as Simon "I will definitely sign my contract" Yeo, Jude Stirling, Ben Futcher, Peter Gain and Richard Butcher, and this could turn out to be a really good christmas cracker.
The Imps come into it on relatively good form, winning 2 out of the last 3, although the other oen should have been a win as well but we couldn't make our dominance tell. We're starting to get on a roll again but after winning our first 5 away games, are we set to lose our 5th in a row? If we do lose, we should still be above Peterborough after the game as they would have to win by 6 goals to overtake us on goal difference.
One disappointing thing is that even if we win, chances are we'll stay 4th because all the teams above us are playing relegation threatened teams but a win could potentially see us move 10 points clear of 8th place and let's face it, if we fall away from the automatic promotion places, at least we'll still have the playoffs,the law of averages says we'll have to win them sometime.
Lee Frecklington's 5th yellow card means he will be suspended for the game and only time will tell if that's a huge blow or not. Likely to take his place, is loanee Matt Birley. There are no new injury worries for the Imps although Mark Stallard is apparantly ready to return to action but even he admits he might not be able to start the game due to Martin Gritton's performance last week that saw him link up well with Forrester. Jeff Hughes could also start the game after returning last week after a few weeks injured.
Who I think will start (Right to left)
Eaden Moses Brown Hughes
Beevers Amoo Birley Nicholson
Forrester Gritton
| Bristol Rovers | W 4-1 | ||||||
| Boston United | W 1-0 | ||||||
| Wrexham | D 0-0 | ||||||
| Macclesfield Town | W 3-1 | ||||||
| Ipswich Town | LC | D 2-2 | |||||
| Peterboro won 4-2 on pens | |||||||
| Notts. County | D 0-0 | ||||||
| Bury | L 0-1 | ||||||
| Darlington | L 1-3 | ||||||
| Walsall | L 0-5 | ||||||
| Swindon Town | W 1-0 | ||||||
| Everton | LC | L 1-2 | |||||
| Hartlepool United | L 3-5 | ||||||
| Barnet | D 1-1 | ||||||
| Stockport County | W 1-0 | ||||||
| Milton Keynes Dons | W 2-0 | ||||||
| Shrewsbury Town | W 2-1 | ||||||
| Wycombe Wanderers | L 0-2 | ||||||
| Grimsby Town | D 2-2 | ||||||
| Swansea City | JP | W 1-0 | |||||
| Accrington Stanley | W 4-2 | ||||||
| Rotherham United | FA | W 3-0 | |||||
| Mansfield Town | W 2-0 | ||||||
| Torquay United | W 5-2 | ||||||
| Bristol Rovers | JP | L 0-1 | |||||
| Tranmere Rovers | FA | W 2-1 | |||||
| Hereford United | D 0-0 | ||||||
| Rochdale | W 1-0 | ||||||
| Chester City | L 0-2 | ||||||
All you've heard all season is people from the Peterborough camp saying how they are better than us yet Keith has mixed up a bunch of players who finished below us last season, with a bunch of players who constantly failed for us, and not to mention that they're below us in the table. In all fairness though, if it wasn't for Ron Atkinson's "up his own arse" ego, Peterborough would have comfortably been in the playoffs instead of us last season because the man who the phrase "You've been tango'd" was invented for, single handedly kept Peterborugh in this division and allowed us to catch up.
This season has seen Peterborough struggle before finding form recently, strangely coinciding with their new owner saying that he was going to buy better players. Impressively, they've turned around from suffering several heavy defeats, to giving out a few thrashings of their own, including beating both Rotherham and Torquay by 3 goals.
Peterborough do have a talented young squad and the star is arguably Danny Crow, who spent time in the Norwich youth set up with Lee Frecklington before the midfielder joined City's academy. Mark Tyler has also been rated as some (mainly Peterborough fans and staff), as the best goalkeeper in the division but he is doubtful for Saturday's game.
As for ex-Lincoln players, the biggest name in there is probably Simon Yeo who showed his true colours when he guaranteed Lincoln fans and staff that he would sign a new contract that he described as "Perfect," all of a sudden and Keith leaves and the contract isn't good enough anymore. He had a big ego considering on average in his City career, he only scored 1 out of every 17 shots that he had.
Peter Gain left the Imps for a rumoured extra £50 a week, recent speculation has seen him linked with a return to City in January. Richard Butcher said he wanted to join the Imps again but obviously wasn't offered a contract and joined Peterborough and is the players who is most likely to recieve a warm reception from City fans. No-one gives a toss about Jude Stirling and finally, Ben Futcher, linked with Premiership clubs when he was with us, left us for......Boston. He will miss Saturday's game through suspension.