By Nathan Jackson
October 17 2005

The LDV Vans Trophy starts in midweek and the Imps face a tricky trip to Tranmere Rovers in the first round as City go in search of their first away win. City reached the Northern Final 5 years ago but since then, a quarter final is the only highlight against two 1st and one 2nd round exits.

City get a welcome distraction from the league on Tuesday night with an LDV Vans 1st Round trip with Tranmere. City will also be going in search of their first away victory of the season and where better to do it, than at a ground in a higher division?

After Saturday's "game of two halves" with Orient, City will go into the game full of confidence. Other than the 0-0 victory with Bristol Rovers, it was the first time that City hadn't taken the lead in an away game this season.

LDV Vans games would normally signal a chance in the team, mainly bringing in some youth players but Keith has never been favourable of this option, only youth player Lee Frecklington has come from the youth team to play in this competition under Keith. Many will be hoping that the side that finished Saturday's match, will start against Tranmere, however, one or two changes are quite possible with players such as Luke Foster, Peter Folkes and Jeff Hughes all likely to get players in the squad.

Morgan is back from suspension, however, whether he gets straight back into the squad is unlikely to feature to get him ready for Saturday's game against unbeaten Wycombe. Whoever starts in goal will depend on how seriously Keith wants to take the competition because, with no disrespect to Raynor, he's not in Marriott's league, in his time in goal recently, he only had 3 serious threats on his goal and 2 of those went in.

The only definate absentees are Jamie McCombe (broken foot) and Richard Butcher (clause in loan deal)

Who I think will start (Right to left)

Marriott

Beevers   Cryan    McAuley    Foster

Kerr   Brown   Keates

Birch    Ryan     Asamoah

 

Tranmere have struggled after making the playoffs last year. On top of a poor start, they sold their best player to Leicester City towards the end of August, which also signifies the month of their last victory.

They started their season by becoming the first team to visit Swansea's new ground in a league game and quickly became the first team to lose there after a 1-0 defeat. 4 days later was their first home game of the season and a local(ish) derby against Blackpool, an Iain Hume goal 7 minutes from time was cancelled out by Vernon's goal in the 44th minute. Chris Greenacre made it 2-1 quickly after the break before Murphy brought Blackpool into the game yet again.

3 days later and another local(ish) derby saw Oldham visit the Wirral. It took a while to get going but Chris Greenarce opened the scoring in the 45th minute before Sharps made it 2-0 soon after. 13 minutes from time and it was 3-0 thanks to a Roberts goal before Greenacre scored his second from the spot to give Tranmere a 4-0 victory.

A 2-0 defeat on their travels at Brentford was followed by a Carling Cup exit to Scunthorpe before a 2-0 win at Chesterfield. Bank Holiday Monday saw struggling Swindon visit and a Chris Greenacre goal just before the hour gave Tranmere all the points. However, this was their last win of the seaosn.

A 0-0 draw at Bournemouth was followed by a 2-2 draw at home to Bradford. A 3-1 defeat at Southend was then followed by their only home game on a Saturday this season which saw an eventful 2-2 draw with Gillingham. Since then, they've suffered defeats against Huddersfield, Forest, Scunny and the latest one on Saturday, to Bristol City.