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The waiting's almost over as County visit
By Nathan Jackson August 3 2006
The season finally begins on Saturday as City try for a 5th straight promotion chase, starting against Notts County. With both teams under new management and with a lot of new players, it's a hard game to predict but it's definately a game that neither side can afford to lose.

Cast you minds back to the playoffs and it's amazing how much can change in a relatively short amount of time. Come 3pm on Saturday, it will be 80 days, 17 hours and 20 minutes, 1937 hours (rounded down), 116,240 minutes or 6,974,400 seconds, since that game against Grimsby Town ended and although there was the World Cup, there's nothing quite watching your favourite football team live. Over the weekend, 792 players across 36 grounds in the 3 football divisions will be hoping to get their season off to a perfect start but most don't have the extra nerves of a local derby on the first day.

With a new management team, several new players and new tactics have got many people feeling optimistic about the season ahead at Sincil Bank but the same can be said for our opponents, Notts County who've also gone through a similar process during the summer. More about them later but I'm personally very optimistic about the Imps' chances throughout the season because during the pre-season, we have played decent football and the first team tore Leicester apart before the first year-pros came on and threw it again......again.

One thing that is vital though is that we get to a decent start for once after 3 years of destroying any chance of automatic promotion within the first few weeks of the season. For example, if we can replicate the run of 4 wins from our first 7 from the 2002/3, or do better then it could finally be the year for the Imps but one thing for certain is that we can't afford to be as relatively poor as we were last season.

For once, there are no guaranteed starting players at Sincil Bank and that leads to a lot of interesting predictions on internet message boards. The position that has been under the most debate is the goalkeeping position after Simon Rayner's impressive performances in pre-season. He stands his best chance of taking the goalkeeper's place from Marriott who to put it nicely, hasn't performed for well over a year now.

Another player who looks likely to benefit under Schofield and Deehan is striker Danny Bacon. The striker wasn't given a chance and he has also looked impressive during pre-season. One or two players are doubts with injuries though with Moses missed the friendly against Forest because of a knock and if he isn't fit, that could open the door for Colin Cryan, Nat Brown will also be out due to a wrist injury.

Who I think will start (Right to left)

Rayner

Cryan     Beevers    Morgan    Hughes

Frecklington   Kerr   Amoo

Bacon      Stallard    Forrester

 

Notts County were lucky not to get relegation last season and they've been a club on the free-fall for quite some time now and have failed to adapt to live at this level since being relegated 2 years ago. However, over the summer they've brought in several players who could very well change County's fortunes and although most came from teams who failed, they've often been the one of the few players at those clubs who have impressed.

County's key player is former Manchester United goalkeeper, Kevin Pilkington who has the potential to be the best goalkeeper in the division. One thing that could be vital to Notts County is the attack combination of Lawrie Dudfield, Junior Mendes and Jason Lee, if they can hit form then Notts County are going to be ok, however, none of them have been prolific for a LONG time.

Under Steve Thompson, County are expected by many to struggle but I get the feeling they'll do quite well and if my prediction is correct, they'll finish 8th.

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