Imps hope for rare victory over the Valiants
By theimps.tk
February 20 2009
Lincoln City will be aiming for a rare victory over Port Vale with the hosts in poor form. The Imps may be midtable, but the Valiants are struggling and have rarely won since their victory at Sincil Bank earlier in the season, but the Imps will certainly have to be better than they have been since the game between the sides earlier in the season.
Well, here we are, on the verge of what will hopefully be a rare match for the Imps. We've played just one match during February and that is causing a huge pile-up for later in the season....that'll be fun!!!! But for now we have a Friday night trip to Port Vale and a chance for a rare victory for the Imps. The Valiants hold an excellent record of the Imps recently, winning the last two meetings between the sides, both with City being the better team but failing to take many chances.
It's a rare occasion where the Imps travel to a team with an away record that is better than the home record of the team they are travelling to, granted it's only a point but it's better than none. Infact, the Valiants are on the few teams who have a worse form record than City. The Imps may have only lost once in ten, but only three wins meaning our Playoff "hopes" are still waiting to get started, however Vale have only won three times themselves since winning at Sincil Bank, two of those coming against relegation battlers Grimsby and Grimsby.
The Imps welcome back Lee Beevers from suspension, whereas Geoff Horsfield and Ben Wright have both returned from injuries, although only Horsfield is likely to feature as Wright doesn't seem popular with Jackson, scoring just twice all season. Vale welcome back several players themselves Howland and Edwards from suspension.
Regarding City's starting line up, it's hard to see Burch being removed from the side, in front of him could be interesting considering Beevers returning. If he does go back into the starting line up then Aaron Brown will be pushed back up field. Beevers would more than likely be alongside Sinclair, Kovacs and Green in the defensive line-up. The aforementioned Brown must battle it out for a place in the midfield with N'Guessan, Oakes and Kerr, however the most likely player he'll replace is LJL, the youngster is still god-awful.
Then we get up front, Elding is a near certainty to start and you'd put money on Horsfield being the one to partner him, although Patulea might get a rare start if Jackson doesn't think Horsfield is ready.
Louis Dodds has continued for Port Vale where he left off at City, going weeks and weeks without scoring. Despite being described as a natural goalscorer by some, Dodds has yet to continually produce in front of net, having scored his last goal on March 1st for City, that despite playing in the vast majority of the games afterwards.
The Valiants are proving to struggled to create decent results in recent months, including a 4-2 defeat at Notts County, a 3-1 defeat at Macclesfield in the cup and a 3-0 defeat at Bury. They are lucky that there are several teams with deductions and rubbish teams (such as Grimsby) below them.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
Big pitch, should suit Oakes and his range of long passes!
---------------------
