By Nathan Jackson
March 28 2007

Lincoln City head to erratic Rochdale knowing anything but a victory will virtually end the automatic promotion race. City have hardly had a decent time since beating Rochdale 7-1 back in October, and head to Rochdale who have both given, and recieved a thrashing in the last week.

It’s been almost 3 years to the day that Lincoln City travelled to Rochdale and effectively secured a playoff place. April 3^rd 2004 saw City travel to Spotland and comfortably win thanks to two goals from Gary Fletcher (as he was then known) and a brilliant thunderbolt from Simon Yeo. It turned out to be a result that proved pivotal in City’s quest for the playoffs that season, almost 3 years later sees the Imps hoping to revive their automatic promotion bid that has taken a big hit in 2007.

 

To say recent weeks have been frustrating would be a massive understatement and it seems almost a lifetime ago since we beat Walsall and moved within 2 points off the top of the table. Just one win since then has not only seen the automatic bid get blurrier by the week, whereas we’ve also been nervously looking over our shoulders, we are far from confirmed in the playoffs just yet.

 

City have an excellent record against Rochdale in recent times, losing just once in the previous 11 meetings, a 3-1 defeat at Spotland in the 2004/5 season, worryingly City have only secured one double against Rochdale in that time period, meaning that despite a 7-1 victory earlier in the season we are far from guaranteed goals and a victory. Infact, Rochdale are even more a Jekyll and Hyde team that the Imps are these days, evidence never so prominent by their contrasting results recently.

 

Rochdale went to Stockport and won 7-2, a result that shocked the footballing world. It was their second victory on the road by a 5-0 goal margin, the next league away game after the 5-0 win at Darlington was their 7-1 defeat at City. However, Rochdale thought their season had turned with that 7-2 win, Tuesday evening and a 3-0 defeat later, it would see a totally different complexion on things.

 

City can ill-afford to under-estimated Rochdale though, that 3-0 defeat at Shrewsbury was their first since a 1-0 home defeat to Bristol Rovers on January 13^th. Since then they’ve faced 2 of the current top 6, scoring a whopping 12 goals against the aforementioned Stockport and MK Dons. Their last home game was played on the day after we played Hartlepool, that ended in a 0-0 draw with Darlington.

 

City’s starting line-up is virtually impossible to predict these days, pretty much the only guaranteed starters are Marriott, Kerr, Frecklington and Stallard. The defensive line-up could very well be interesting after Sunday’s horror show against Swindon. The only defender who did well in that game was Paul Green, hopefully he will continue to start the game after several impressive performances in recent weeks. Lee Beevers’ inclusion in the reserve game makes it look like that he will be left out of the starting 11 on Saturday. Nicky Eaden and Nat Brown are also likely candidates to start, the final place in the defence is anyone’s guess.

 

In the midfield, other than the aforementioned Kerr and Frecklington, it will probably be the same that started against Swindon, with Holmes playing on the left after an impressive debut, and Ryan Amoo on the right, currently enjoying a fine run of form that has seen him win praise from several message board posters.

 

It’s almost a dead cert that Stallard will start,  and should we also start with Jamie Forrester then we could very well be finally looking dangerous again. It seems almost ironic that if they do start together, it will be the first time they’ve both started a match since the defeat at Notts County, our last defeat on the road.

 

Rochdale have an interesting squad with several notable players for Imps fans to remember. Lee Crooks spent the summer with the Imps but failed to negotiate a deal, whereas behind him on the pitch is former Scunthorpe defenders, Nathan Stanton and Mark Jackson. Danny Reet surprisingly left Mansfield on loan for Rochdale, and he is who we think will be Rochdale’s danger man having caused City some problems in the past.

 

Elsewhere in the division, the only team above us who have a difficult game are Swindon Town, they host improving Shrewsbury Town at the County Ground. You would expect all of the other teams to win though, with Stockport heading to Torquay, Hartlepool at home to Chester, MK Dons are Hereford and Walsall at home to Accrington, all of which are highly winnable games for our promotion rivals. With games running out we desperately need a few surprises from these games if we are to challenge for automatic promotion.

 

A win for the Imps would realistically secure at least the playoffs for the Imps, especially with playoff chasers Peterborough and Wycombe facing each other.