By theimps.tk
March 24 2006

Lincoln City will go into Saturday's game with Grimsby Town wanting revenge for the Mariner's 3-0 victory earlier this season. It was a night that changed City's season and turned a relegation battle into a promotion push but unlike last time, both sides need the points for the same reasons.

It's a game that the Imps must win to maintain a realistic chance of the playoffs, especially considering that the Imps have trips to Carlisle and Darlington next week. When City visited Grimsby earlier this season, it was a 1 sided affair and the Mariners won 3-0, a lead they had established by half time and a game where the Grimsby goalkeeper was rarely troubled. The ironic thing about that game was that most fans finally ruled out the playoffs, something that we'd been trying to tell them for the 2 or 3 months before that, yet, the Imps would have been unbeaten since the game at Blundell Park is the Imps defence had done their jobs and actually marked players during last week's game at Boston.

 

Peterborough are the only side the Imps can catch on Saturday and even that would require results going in such a way that the goal difference of 6 disappears. However, the Posh do have a tricky away tie at rejuvented Oxford United. One thing that the Imps definatly can't afford is to slip to yet another derby defeat (what would be the 5th derby defeat of the season) ahead of next week's difficult trips up north to Carlisle and Darlington.

 

 

New signing, Jamie Forrester is expected to make the squad, however, with a lack of match fitness, he may be consigned to a place on the bench. Fellow newbie, Jamie Sherlock is unlikely to feature and if he's like Keith Alexander's previous deadline day transfers, he won't be a regular in the first team. With Yeo out injured for what will probably turn out to be the rest of the season, the frontline should consist of Birch, Gritton and Green although Marvin Robinson staked a claim for a starting place after his beautiful goal last week, that is if Keith decides to stick to the 4-3-3 system. If he reverts back to 5-3-2, it could be down to the return of Paul Morgan from injury after he featured in the midweek friendly at Mansfield.

 

After impressive showings in recent games, most fans will be hoping that Paul Mayo will make way for Jeff Hughes. If Morgan doesn't return, the defence will more than likely stick to what it was last week. The midfield is the main talking point as several midfielders are starting to hit form and the only name consistantly on the sheet from the midfielders is Scott Kerr, the leaves the remaining 2 (or even 1) midfield spot(s) to be fought out between Steve Robinson, Lee Frecklington, Lee Beevers, Luke Foster and possibly, although already stated unlikely, Sherlock.

 

Whatever the formation, City will have to improve on last week's dismal first half display and actually start marking players.

 

Who I think will start (Right to left)

Marriott

Cyran         Brown      McCombe   Hughes

S/Robinson      Frecklington        Kerr

Green    Birch    Gritton

 

 Grimsby Town is a football club that is famous for being the verbal punching bag of football "experts". Whenever you watch a documentary about the aspects of footabll, you can guarantee that Grimsby will be mentioned at some point in a context that tries to make you realise that life could always be worse. For example, I was watching a documentary about the bad points of football and at one point it goes "So you're club has just finished bottom of the league, run out of money, your star striker has been sold for nothing and to top it all off, even you're manager says you'll go straight down again the next season......it could be worse, you could support Grimsby."

 

However, despite the constant remarks, the Mariners have started improving immensly. In the last 6 years, they have failed to finish above 18th and in the middle of that run, they were relegated in consecutive years and joined League 2 for last season and 18th place again was merely viewed as consolidating themselves and there's no doubt that since then, they've launched a viable promotion bid. At the heart of that bid is exciting striker, Michael Reddy and the former Sunderland man is rated by many as being the best striker in the division.

 

However, Reddy isn't the only decent player at Blundell Park and at the centre of their defence, are two of the tallest players in the country. Rob Jones and our old friend, Ben Futcher, both stand at 6'7 and that means that the Imps will definatly have to be on there toes at set pieces. Fellow ex Lincoln player, Ciaran Toner sits in the midfield and as the Imps found out to their cost as he scored early on at Blundell Park, he can score from any angle.

 

Grimsby absolutly tore the Imps apart at Blundell Park and were 3-0 up at half time. The funny thing about the game was the until Toner scored that goal, the ball hadn't been out of Grimsby's half. Since then, both teams have been in relatively decent form. City hadn't lost after that game until last weekend and Town had continued their promotion push and a win could take them top. Grimsby's Championship hopes revolve around the Imps over the next 5 days as not only do the Imps face Grimsby but the Imps then travel to free scoring Carlisle on Tuesday evening.