By Nathan Jackson
April 5 2010

It's been a day where the nine point gap with over Grimsby with six to play doesn't seem as big as it would seem. A third game without a win and one of the worst performances for a while has seen a lot of Imps fans looking very cautiously over their shoulder,  

It's been a long time since I've felt this flat after a home defeat. It's probably the flattest I've been since a 2-1 defeat at home to Mansfield in January 2008 that made a lot of Imps fans think relegation to the Conference was a near certainty.....and although the current position is considerably better than the one we found ourselves in after that game against Mansfield, the run in makes me feel like we're far from safe yet.

On paper the Imps only have one winnable game left and that comes against Macclesfield on the final day, a team we've beaten in each of the last five meetings. Other than that we face Bournemouth, Notts County, Shrewsbury, Bury and Aldershot, all of whom are still hopeful of automatic promotion or the Playoffs.  It's certainly going to be a nervous final month of the season.

However, the main reason I am completely flat is that we had been playing well until recently but have now gone backwards. It seems almost strange that we improved whilst some of our supposed better players were gone, but we start falling apart as soon as they return. Then again it could just be that we're relying on a mere handful of players to score goals for us. Somma appears to have gone dry, Saunders' confidence is so high that he's shooting from anywhere and the less said about Chris Herd's shooting, the better.

Then again, it's not just the underperforming at the front, it's also at the back. Everyone seems to rate Burch but regardless of the defence in front of him, he is incapable of keeping a clean sheet. I know some people will blame the defence for the lack of clean sheets, and in some cases (such as the third goal against Morecambe) they would be correct. The defence is lacking a leader at the moment. Swaibu or Anderson don't seem to talk on the pitch, Green spends a lot of the time further up the field and the less said about Baker, the better.

The current lack of fight is shocking, but none more so than our levels of concentration in the final ten minutes. Crewe, Northampton and Morecambe have all come to Sincil Bank in recent weeks and gone home with points due to goals in the final 10 minutes. It wouldn't be so bad if Crewe and Northampton hadn't spent virtually the entire game defending.

In short it comes down to two questions, when/if will Grimsby make up the nine points to get to City's current 43 points and if they get there, where will the Imps be at that time? With Grimsby's run in, you wouldn't be against them reaching the 43 point mark, but given that City's only "on paper" winnable game is on the final day of the season, it could became fair tighter than some City fans want to admit.

To end this reaction here's an ominous fact for you. Grimsby went into the final two games last season battling relegation with Chester.......the latter went down after their penultimate game at Aldershot virtually guaranteeing Chester's relegation......City's penultimate game happens to be away at Aldershot.

Reaction to the Morecambe defeat

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 05/04/2010 23:55

theimps.ka
05/04/2010 23:55

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