By Slevin Morgan
March 19 2010

Lincoln travel to Torquay United with both sides having only lost one of their last seven games. Both sides have slowly pulled away from the drop zone in recent weeks and now both sides will know that a victory over the other would virtually guarantee safety.

Well it’s finally happened, Chris Sutton has turned us into a very hard team to beat. City have only lost one of the last seven games and the best thing about it is that we’re now starting to get back into games. During this run of only one defeat in seven, we’ve gone beyond in four of the games, coming back to gain something in three of those, something that the Imps haven’t done on a consistent basis for quite some time.  

The goals are certainly starting to flow as well as we’ve scored 13 goals in our last ten games, something that may not sound impressive, but given that before that we were the second worst goalscorers in the division, it certainly marks an improvement. However, whilst goals have been coming at the right end, they’re still being let in on a regular basis and we’ll never really make progress until we stop conceding every single game.

You’d have to go back to the game at Crewe on December 5^th to find the last time the Imps didn’t concede, although that was mainly due to the fact that none of Crewe’s 18 shots on goal fell on target. The most annoying part of it is that so many of them are needless goals to give away and made by mistake. For example, Dagenham only scored on Tuesday night because Cian Hughton decided it would be a good idea not to run against an attacker, whom despite being further away from the ball than him, who was quicker than he was.

And now we come to a very interesting game. City will end their season with three of their final four away games being long trips, but if City can repeat the last time they travelled to Torquay then it will virtually secure Football League status for another year.

OUR EXPECTED CITY STARTING LINE UP
	Made some excellent saves on Tuesday night but the facts don’t lie and it’s been a long time since he kept a clean sheet. Unless something highly unusual happens, he’ll almost certainly start in goal.
	Danny Hone must be sick of this season, starting it as a regular but then only making appearances whenever virtually all of the rest of the defence are injured. The worst part about it being that he rarely has a bad game. Due to the injuries of virtually every other centre back, he’ll more than likely start against Torquay.
	Another player who has benefitted from virtually everyone else being injured, Swaibu has had his longest run of games since Jackson left and will almost certainly continue that against Torquay.
	Anderson is slowly developing into a decent left back. With a lot of nervous displays in his opening two months, he’s started to settle down now that the Imps have been a more attacking side. It’s also nice to have someone who can hit a set piece that goes more than 2 feet off of the ground.
	The goal the other night was his fault and all the current injury crisis has proved is that he is a far better attacking player than he is at defending.
	If there’s one player who has improved in recent weeks then it’s Saunders and he’s arguably becoming a more valuable player than Chris Herd in the midfield. Having extended his loan until the end of the season, he’ll get his first ever trip to Torquay.
	In a true sign of how much this club has changed in recent years, Kerr is the only surviving member of City’s last visit to Torquay……a mere three seasons ago.
	Shane Clarke is another player who has benefitted from the injury crisis that has gripped the club recently. Although never really more than a fringe player, Clarke seems to have found himself in Sutton’s team quite a bit in recent times.
	ß----Steven Lennon Sutton seems to be playing the young Scot in the midfield these days, but that didn’t stop him having four great opportunities against Dagenham the other night.
	Our last trip to Torquay United saw two players get extremely rare goals, meaning that this could be the last chance for a relatively shot-shy Connor to score a goal. However, Sutton will at some point grow tired of Connor not making any sort of impact on games.
	ß--Davide Somma  Somma would be pretty much the only guaranteed outfield player to take part at Torquay. The striker has been deadly since joining on loan from Leeds and is certainly doing his best to earn a permanent deal, whether we can afford him or not is another matter.

The Imps are unbeaten in four matches against Torquay, winning three of those. The last meeting came at Sincil Bank for Chris Sutton’s second home game as City manager. It was a dire affair that was dominated by Torquay, whom couldn’t hit a barn door.

That was the first meeting since Mark Stallard headed the Imps to victory in February 2007 and Saturday’s game will be the first trip down to Plainmoor since a memorable victory in August 2006.

In what was a relatively poor game, the deadlock was broken by Garner from 25 yards, Paul Mayo missed a penalty and it appeared that City’s season had hit the buffers early. However, Paul Morgan and Martin Gritton both scored in added on time, with the latter looking well offside, to give City a win and make it 7 points from the first 3 games. It could be argued that had City lost this game, then it could have meant a very different season from the one we went on to have.

Both sides won their home game in 2005/6, with the game at Plainmoor proving controversial as the Imps took the lead before going behind 2-1……and then having three players sent off in quick succession, meaning that Colin Cryan had to go in goal. Scott Kerr and Jeff Hughes scored the goals to win the game at Sincil Bank.

City’s record down at Plainmoor isn’t great in recent years, with that 2-1 win being the first win at Plainmoor since April 1993. The overall record isn’t bad though with City record 11 wins from the 29 trips down to Plainmoor, losing a relatively small 13 times.

Torquay appeared to be making a quickfire return from the Blue Square Premier after being relegated in 2006/7. They made the Playoffs and had record some impressive results and comebacks, including coming from 3-0 down at Oxford to get a point, however, that season will be remembered for a comeback they most certainly wouldn’t want to have happened. Leading 3-1 on aggregate with 20 minutes to go in their tie against Exeter City in the Playoff Semi Finals, four quickfire Exeter goals meant that they were stranded for another year.

Last season saw a poor start, losing four of their opening seven games, however, they did recover in time to make the Playoffs on the final day……not bad considering they went into that game with only two wins in eight games. A 2-1 win over Histon on aggregate took them to the final and despite being outnumbered two-to-one by Cambridge fans, the Torquay fans went home happy after a 2-0 win secured promotion back to the League.

They started this season with a 2-0 win over Chesterfield at home, but they would only win once more in the League before the end of October and it appeared to be yet another battle against relegation. They have been down the bottom for most of the season but a decent December saw a small upturn in form. They secured wins over fellow strugglers Cheltenham and Darlington, as well as winning 4-0 away at Stockport County in the FA Cup.

However, they quickly went on another run without winning, including a run of seven defeats in nine games. Recent form has against upturned and much like City, they have only lost one of their last seven games.

Torquay’s squad contains two former Imps, Tyrone Thompson and Guy Branston. Scott Rendell is also at Plainmoor, ironically joining them in the summer on loan from Peterborough just weeks after he was part of the Cambridge side that lost to Torquay in the Playoff Final. He was heavily linked with a move to Sincil Bank in the summer, but Peter Jackson chose to go with Rene Howe instead.

A meeting of two surprisingly in-form teams

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 19/03/2010 09:31

theimps.ka
19/03/2010 09:31

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