Imps "laugh a minute" season continues


By Nathan Jackson
December 9 2005

Lincoln City's less than convincing season continues on Saturday, with the visit of promotion chasing Chester. The men from the Saunders Honda Stadium, have lost just 3 league games, whereas the Imps have only won 4 league games, quite an easy one to predict on paper.

Another week and yet more dropped points for the Imps but luckily, we increased the gap between us and 23rd place to 5 points and hopefully, over the Christmas period, that will turn into a bigger gap but that's over the long term and over the short term, the Imps have a very difficult home game against Chester to look forward to at the weekend. Keith Curle's men have had a very successful season thus far, losing just 3 of their 20 games and when you compare that to City's record of 4 wins out of the 20 league games, makes this game rather easy to predict on paper.

The game sees several ex-Imps return to Sincil Bank, those former Imps are Luke Dimech, Justin Walker and disgraced Marcus Richardson.

It'll just be the same old story as the Imps will more than likely start with the same side that started against Macclesfield last week. That could mean that Lee Beevers could be faced with a 2nd consecutive week of nothing even making the bench, furthuring speculation of his imminent departure to Crewe.

Who I think will start (Right to left)

Marriott

McAuley    Morgan    McCombe   Mayo

Brown    Kerr   Keates

Logan    Asamoah      Birch

 

When Keith Curle took over, things were looking up for a Chester side that limped through last season and only escaped relegation a few weeks from the end of the season and there has been no disappointment this season as his side has rocketed up the table and if they continue their impressive form, promotion will be almost certain.

They opened their season with an excellent 1-0 win at Peterborough before the Imps visited the Honda Stadium. Although I wasn't in attendance, every single report and reaction I've heard (other than Chester's official website report) about this game, shows that the men from the stadium that is half in Wales and half in England, were incredibly fortunate to escape with a point. City went into a 2-0 lead thanks to a Nat Brown header and Gary Birch volley. However, a controversial goal at the beginning of the second half made it a game. Marriott had caught a cross but was fouled on his way down and dropped the ball, however, the referee didn't blow and Chester pounced to make it 2-1. City looked to be heading for an (apparantly) deserved victory when Morgan conceeded a last minute penalty and it finished 2-2, who knows what City's season would have turned out like if that penalty hadn't been given.

Chester record another point with a 1-1 draw away at Rushden before being thumped 5-1 at Wolverhampton in the League Cup. The highest scoring game so far this season followed with Darlington as the sides shared 8 goals in a 4-4 thriller at the Saunders Honda Stadium. This was followed with a 1-0 success at Torquay and a 3-1 win against Mansfield which saw Curle's men go 2nd in the table.

However, this fine win over Mansfield was followed by the first league defeat of the season as they went down 2-1 to Grimsby. A top of table clash with Notts County saw an entertaining 1-1 draw before Chester thrashed Bristol 4-0 before a 0-0 draw at Stockport and a 2-0 win over Carlisle. Another promotion 6 pointer followed and again resulted in a thrilling match as they shared a 3-3 draw with Wycombe Wanderers. In their second local derby of the season, they lost 3-2 at home to Chester but confidently beat Barnet 3-1. However, Chester crashed out of the LDV with an embarrasing 3-0 defeat at struggling conference side, Cambridge.

Bury claimed a point at the Saunders Honda Stadium before they conceeded 3 in an away game for the 3rd time in 4 games as they crashed 3-1 at Shrewsbury. A rather unconvincing 2-1 FA Cup win over Folkestone Victora followed before a 0-0 draw with Northampton. Chester managed to gain a bit of pride against Rochdale as they drew 2-2 at Spotland. 2 weeks ago, they completed the double over Peterborough with a 3-1 victory beating dumping Forest out of the FA Cup with a 3-0 win. Tuesday saw them win a 3rd game in a row as they impressively won away at Leyton Orient.

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