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City face tough task against Kettering
By Nathan Jackson
November 7 2008
Those expecting an easy game against Kettering Town will be very much mistaken. City drew the Poppies in the first round of the cup of with the home side top of the Blue Square Premier, they will be far more difficult opponents than a lot of City fans will give them credit for. However, City have the advantage of generally being fitter, stronger and in desperate need of a cup win.

The Imps don't have a great history in the cups. We currently have the worst record in the Football League for reaching the third round of the FA Cup, the last time being in 1998/9 when we drew a home game against Sunderland. Since then it's mainly been first round exits to League One clubs, but this season is different as we have drawn a non-league side for the first time since 2000.

City travel to Rockingham Road, home of Kettering Town for a fixture that is far more difficult than it may sound. The Poppies won promotion last season and are on the verge of that again following an excellent start to the season. This has all the potential makings of a cup upset, although being Lincoln in a cup can hardly be classed as surprisingly these days.

Lincoln go into the game on the back of last Saturday's dominating game over Port Vale. City would have surely won that game if we had more luck.....i/e...if Kevin Gall had never come to Sincil Bank, but oh well, only two defeats in the since August 23rd is a good record for anyone.

With it being a cup game, it is slightly harder than usual to predict who will be in City's starting line up. The only likely absentees are Lee Frecklington and Stefan "I can get injured by wind" Oakes. Freck missed the game against Vale and boy did we miss him. We lacked a bit of creativitiy without him in the midfield and his presence could be the difference on Saturday.

Rob Burch is likely to start in goal with the familiar back line in front of him of Beevers, Kovacs, Hone and Green, Beevers looking to increase his unusually high scoring record in cup competitions for City. Kerr, Clarke and Aaron Brown are likely to start in midfield with LJL, Adrian Patulea and N'Guessan up front.

The Poppies are certainly giving it a go in the BSP. They currently sit at the top of the division and look like they could potentially be a League club this time next year. They have plenty of League experience in their squad, former Northampton trio, Lee Harper, David Galbraith and Tommy Jaszcuzn and Guy Branston all have League experience. They also have a few former Imps playing for them, Craig Westcarr and Nicky Eaden, both ironically joining City on loan from Forest.

The draw for the second round (although City fans probrably won't need to know) is on Sunday lunchtime.

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City face tough task against Kettering
Posted by: theimps.tk (IP Logged)
Date: 07/11/2008 14:31

City face tough task against Kettering

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Re: City face tough task against Kettering
Posted by: Jam Imp (IP Logged)
Date: 07/11/2008 21:29

Guy Branston is suspended (suprise), so they'll have the centre back who is behind Guy Branston in the pecking order playing (Sm16)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:11:07:21:40:28 by Jam Imp.

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