Dear Santa, for Christmas I'd like a lot of points, please.

Although having not won in two and a half months, the Imps are about to have a golden opportunity to bring themselves back in the pack. With City having arguably the most favourable fixtures of anyone out of the bottom six or seven, it's a golden chance for City to ease the pressure that is mounting on Chris Sutton.

Lincoln City may be just two points above the drop zone, but if we record a decent Christmas, then we could not only potentially increase our gap over Grimsby, but also bring a lot of other teams into the pack. There is a small pack of teams directly above the Imps, and a good Christmas will not only bring us into that pack, but will also bring more teams into the relegation battle.

Cheltenham for example, their next two games are against Bournemouth and Dagenham, two of the best teams in the division, you can't really picture them getting anything there.....good old John Schofield. They've gone quite some time without getting a decent run of results and City have started catching them in recent weeks.....very slowly so,

Whilst everyone has been focused on the gap between us and Grimsby slowly disappearing, our ability to pick up the odd point here and there has kept us in touch with the pack. If you look at the three teams directly above us, they're all within three points and we've played them all, none of them looked overly special, although Torquay have hit decent form recently.

With the fixtures for all our relegation rivals looking very favourably for the Imps. As mentioned, Cheltenham face Bournemouth on Boxing Day, whereas Northampton face Dagenham and Redbridge, Grimsby travel to Notts County, Darlington go to Rotherham, whereas Torquay go to Hereford.

City's opponents on Boxing Day are Chesterfield. Although excellent at home, Chesterfield have massive problems on the road and they have an identical away record to the Imps, winning just two, drawing one and losing seven. It's not often that City have a side come to them that actually have an away record that's worse than City's home record. The Imps have picked up just twelve points at Sincil Bank, but even then you've got a fancy City's chances against a team that've picked up just seven points on the road. Even a draw wouldn't be a bad result, as a draw would see us go level on points with Cheltenham.

Then on the 28^th comes arguably the biggest game of our season so far. Darlington have won just two games all season long and have a goal difference of -35. They normally have an excellent record over City, and have already recorded a win against the Imps at home this season, but the game in the League at Sincil Bank showed a gulf between the two sides. Any team that lets Rene Howe score twice from open play clearly isn't that good.

There are also favourable fixtures for the Imps on the 28^th. Northampton travel to a Barnet side who've only lost once at home all season, Torquay travel to Bournemouth, Cheltenham go to Dagenham and Redbridge and Grimsby have Port Vale at home.

All in all, the upcoming spell of games is arguably the biggest weekend in the club's history. It is the best chance City have had for a while that will give them a chance to not only get level with at least one of the teams above them, but also overtake one or two. It's a make or break spell of games, especially as City don't play for the following weekend.

This relegation battle is no long just seemingly a case of Darlington and then one of either City or Grimsby. Both the Imps and Mariners could easily avoid relegation, but both desperately need to start recording wins as both clubs have now gone a combined five months without a win.

After January 2nd, City will have games in hand over everyone around them (except Macclesfield and Torquay.....and assuming all games goes ahead), including two games in hand over Grimsby Town. If we can record at least one win from our two games over Christmas, then we are back in the pack and have massive advantage.

This could very well be a season where we are truly awful but end up stay up due to other teams not getting wins.