2000-2010 - The stats of our home games for a decade

Sincil Bank has been a mixed hunting ground for the Imps over the last ten years. There are sides that haven't won at Sincil Bank, whereas there are those teams who have won on every single visit to Sincil Bank. With the game against Chesterfield not affecting any of the stats I will mention, we will now examine 10 years at Sincil Bank.

If I was to ask you to find the connection between Accrington Stanley, Barnet and Swansea, what do you think the answer would be? That they've all been almost relegated to the non-League over the last ten years? Nope, that's not it, it's that the Imps won 100% of the games played against all three during the decade.

City have been the most successful against Barnet during the decade. From January 1st 2000 onwards, City have beaten Barnet in 2000/1, 2005/6, 2006/7, 2007/8, 2008/9 and this season's open day victory. This is easily the best record that City have over any team. City also beat Swansea in all 4 meetings between the sides (2001/2, 2002/3, 2003/4 and 2004/5). Also, our three home games against Accrington have all ended with Imps wins.

Other than Barnet, our most successive run of victories against a single side is Macclesfield Town. The Imps recorded five straight victories at Sincil Bank against the Silkmen, the five wins coming in the 2001/2, 2002/3 and the 2003/4 seasons, as well as two victories in the 2004/5. We have also achieved the double over Macclesfield on four occasions (2001/2, 2002/3, 2007/8 and 2008/9), more than any other side we've faced this decade.

We also record three straight home wins against Hartlepool, Hull City, York City, Macclesfield Town and Scunthorpe United. Numerous sides have been beaten two visits in a row to Sincil Bank, too many to list.

It will come as little surprise that Boston are the team we had the most consective draws as Sincil Bank. Four matches in a row finished in stalemate between the 2002/3 and 2005/6 seasons, ending with a 2-1 win for the Imps in 2006/7.

Unfortunately, there aren't that many teams that City have remained unbeaten against at home. Other than the aforementioned trio of Barnet, Swansea and Accrington Stanley, the other teams that we didn't lose to at home (based on having played more than one game) are Cambridge United (one win and two draws), Hull City (four wins and a draw), Northampton Town (one win, three draws) and Scunthorpe United (four wins, two draws).

On the other hand, plenty of teams have remained undefeated at Sincil Bank based on more than one game. Rushden, Halifax, MK Dons, Port Vale, Bournemouth, Bradford, Luton and Rotherham United didn't suffer defeat in any of their visits to Sincil Bank. Port Vale and Rotherham are the only teams to have visited Sincil Bank more than once to have won on every single visit, although the Imps did beat both in various pre-season campaigns.

Our biggest win was unsurprisingly the 7-1 win over Rochdale, whereas City record 5-0 wins over Carlisle United and Grimsby Town will go down in the memory. Victories over 5-1 over Crewe and 4-0 over Bracknell are our next biggest wins. Whereas several sides have been beaten 4-1 at Sincil Ban. However, City scoring over 4 goals was rather limited. The Imps scored four or more on twelve occasions, the most recent being a 5-1 win over Accrington Stanley last season.

Despite this, the Imps conceded four or more on ten occasions, the most recent being a 4-2 defeat on the final day of the 2007/8 season. Infact, six of those occasions we've conceded four or more have come since Keith Alexander left the club in 2006.

So there you have it, a lot of stats, some of which are irrelevant, about the last 10 years at Sincil Bank. The Chesterfield game will not impact on any of the other mentioned facts, but with two away games still to come, we'll bring you the away facts after the Darlington game.