By Nathan Jackson
August 13 2010

Lincoln City's start to the season has seen two defeats and it certainly won't be getting any easier as they welcome table topping Torquay to Sincil Bank. The Gulls have won seven of their last nine League games stretching game into last season and will go into the game against the Imps as favourites, especially given that shocking defending City have shown so far.

This game is guaranteed to be hotly contested after the controversy surrounding the transfer of Mustapha Carayol during the summer. City announced the signing in June from Torquay and a big argument started between the clubs ensued. City initially only offered a percentage of any future fees, but Torquay want that and a fee.

The main argument though stems from City's belief that because Carayol had already spent time in professional football before joining Torquay, that the Gulls had little say in his development. Torquay's argument on the other hand is that Carayol had never played regular professional football before going to them. #

If I'm being honest, I have to side with Torquay on this one. City have in the past pursued large sums of money for players that you could argue that the Imps had very little help in their development. Look at Dany N'Guessan, he had been at Rangers and Boston before us, yet we still expected a large fee, and from what I'm seen Carayol is better than N'Guessan.

Regardless of what is happening off the field, on the field the Imps have a very difficult game. Torquay destroyed one of the promotion favourites last week with a 3-0 win over Northampton. They narrowly lost to Reading in the very last minute of extra-time in the Carling Cup, the first goal they had conceded in 899 minutes of football.

It's certainly not being an easy start to Chris Sutton's first full season in management. After last week's narrow (but regular) defeat to Rotherham, City were thumped at Leeds in the Carling Cup. Infact, City have won just twice since winning 3-2 down at Torquay in March. In 11 matches since that game, we've won 2, drawn 2 and lost 7. It was strange how people were saying we ended last season well, defeat losing 5 of our last 10 games.

In a rather ironic twist of fast, many people think that Sutton is better than either Jackson or Schofield, yet it's now impossible for Sutton to amass more points from his first three games than either Schofield or Jackson did from their first three League games in their finals seasons. Both amassed 6 points from the first three games of their last seasons, Schofield's team even sitting 4th after 3 games.

However, without Torquay, or rather a Torquay player's shoulder, Lincoln wouldn't have made the first Playoff campaign to build what has become the standard to which the current managers are compared. City were losing 1-0 at home to Torquay on the final day of the 2002/3 season, but with 4 minutes to go Yeo swung his boot at the ball, watching it shot going wide before deflecting off of the shoulder of Ruben Hazell to give City their first of five Playoff campaigns.

Going into the game and there will be one question on everyone's lips, what formation will Sutton play? He has been employing a 4-1-4-1 formation in the first two games and both failed miserably. Many speculate though that this formation will only be used away from home and that we will be playing 4-4-2 at home, whether that actually happens remains to be seen though.

EXPECTED STARTING LINE UP
	As strange as it sounds, Anyon was one of the better players on Tuesday night and it could so easily have been far worse had he not pulled off some excellent saves. Set to make his home debut.
	It was better from Swaibu on Tuesday night, then again most of the goals came from his side of the defence. It does make you wonder if head would still be starting games if all the other defenders were fit.
	Clapham will probably start his first game for the Imps following on from an impressive second half against Leeds. At a time when you're facing the an attack with excellent options, then an old, experienced head is probably what you need.
	Watts was probably the only starting defender to come out of Tuesday's game with any form of credit. He will be making his first home League appearance since suffering a broken leg at Grimsby in February.
	3 of the 4 goals from from his side on Tuesday and although he was committed, the conceding goals consistently from that side is a worry.
	Hughton has still yet to hit his stride this season and has been relatively quiet so far during the season. Then again he's being played in the defensive midfielder role, that despite being considerably better as either right back or right midfield.
	Jarrett has probably been the most consistent member of the team so far and his ability to play on either wing is certainly aiding City so far.
	Was responsible for the first goal on Tuesday night after giving it the ball away in midfield, but then we saw something seldom seen from the Leeds fan, his beating three players within the space of 5 yards.
	Still struggling to find his feet and looks like a younger and taller version of Kerr. He has struggled to impress so far as both games have seemingly just passed him by.
	It'll be interesting to see what reception he gets from the Torquay fans after his summer move, but the Gambian will certainly want to raise his game against his former employers.
	Facey came on against Leeds and looked like the most likely to score out of all the strikers who've played so far. He even appears to have worked on his fitness after managing to outrun some Leeds defenders.

As mentioned earlier, the Imps will be coming up against a very confident Torquay side that haven't conceded a League goal since March. It was a strange end to the season for Torquay, who had spent most of the season battling relegation, but then successive defeats to Lincoln and Morecambe changed everything.

A 2-1 win at home to Shrewsbury was followed by a respectable draw at Northampton. They thrashed eventually promoted Rochdale 5-0 and finished their season with two 3-0 wins, a 2-0, a 1-0 and a 0-0 with Champions Notts on the final day. It was an end to the season that eventually saw them finish in a comfortable 17th, thirteen points clear of the relegation zone. They started this season off in similar form, beating Northampton on the opening day.

They are well on their way to have a third successful year out of four under Buckle. He had turned them into an excellent team in the Conference, even coming from 3-0 down to draw at Oxford on one occasion. They were unlucky with the Playoffs in 2007/8 but recovered 12 months later to beat Cambridge at Wembley.

Amongst the Torquay line up are former Imps Martin Gritton and Guy Branston. Gritton left Lincoln at the end of the 2006/7 season having scored just three goals during his time with the club. He was rarely given a chance in the first team during his last season and he was loaned out to Mansfield at one point. To played for Macclesfield and Chesterfield after leaving the Imps.

They are just two players that the have represented both clubs during this century. The other names are Lee Thorpe, Simon Rayner, Tyrone Thompson, David Graham, Richard Kell, Marcus Richardson, Richard Logan, Anthony Pulis and Aaron Brown.

Rotherham, Leeds and now top of the table Torquay

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 13/08/2010 08:26

theimps.ka
13/08/2010 08:26

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