By Nathan Jackson
August 10 2010

Lincoln City have one of the more difficult games in the first round draw for the Carling Cup. City were drawn to face Leeds United at Elland Road, a very difficult place to go when you're trying to end a run that has seen the Imps come and go at the first round in this competition in each of the last four seasons.

There are certain games during the season where you just look at it and realise that you're probably not going to win, and one of those comes in this season's Carling Cup as the Imps travel to Leeds. City have gone out in the first round of this competition in each of the last four seasons to Scunthorpe, Doncaster, Derby and Barnsley respectively. However, other than the Doncaster game, the Imps were well in the match and even leading for a time against both Scunthorpe and Derby.

The last time you'd find a Lincoln City victory in the Carling Cup 1^st round is the 2005/6 season. City played Championship side Crewe at Sincil Bank and the Imps put in a storming performance with a brace from Gary Birch, as well as goals from Lee Beevers, Maheta Molango and Marvin Robinson secured City the win. It was the last time City had won in any cup competition until last season's FA Cup win at Telford.

Victory over Crewe set up that memorable night at Fulham when City took a reasonably strong Fulham side to extra time, coming from two goals down twice before a Brian McBride header in the 120^th minute made it 5-4 to the Premiership side. Despite conceding five goals, the game was viewed as the high point of Alan Marriott's City career.

City are a far different team to the one that represented the club in that Fulham game. Despite being generally agreed as the worst of the five Lincoln squads to make the Playoffs, that Lincoln side would probably easily defeat the current Lincoln side. Man for man the current squad are probably better than the 2005/6 season squad, but would the Lincoln squad of five seasons ago leaving a defender facing five attackers on his own on the edge of the six yard box?

It was just a pity that the game was defined by City's bad defending as the Imps were the better side in the game. Rotherham were there for the taking and had Sutton brought on a second striker when the game was at 1-1 then I have no doubt we would have won, instead Sutton waited until they had waited until after they made it 2-1. It was a game that showed why Sutton still has a long way to go until the Imps are a force in this division again.

Infact, you could argue that the Imps are still lucky to be in the division and had it not been for a Leeds striker then it could have been very different. Davide Somma arrived in late February earlier this year and nine goals in fourteen games ended up seeing City safe. It came as little surprise when Leeds renewed his deal and at that point any realistic chance of his signing permanently for City disappeared. He remains as the only striker Sutton has brought to this club on any type of deal that has scored a decent amount of goals.

TEAM NEWS

Adam Watts and Ian Pearce could miss the game through injuries sustained at Rotherham, but other than that City generally have a full squad to pick from. Watts has been rated as 50:50 to start the game.

EXPECTED STARTING LINE UP
	Anyon didn’t really have much of a chance with either goal on Saturday, although his positioning for the second could have been better.
	Swaibu was responsible for the winning goal the other day after leaving Pearce to deal with five defenders on his own, then again it probably wouldn’t have made much difference anyway.
	Clapham could be set for his Imps debut because of the injuries to Watts and Pearce. Hopefully he will be able to bring a bit of intelligence to a group of defenders who seemingly had none in the closing moments on Saturday.
	Whatever happens, it will almost certainly be Anderson’s fault.
	It’s Paul Green, what more do you really have to say?
	I was quite surprised how quiet Hughton was on Saturday, but then again he had a brilliant season last year so hopefully he’ll find that form again soon.
	Along with Carayol, Jarrett was excellent on Saturday and was unfortunate not to score himself.Having scored against Celtic, you get a feeling that he is a player who usually does well against the bigger clubs.
	If there’s one game that’s made for Scott Kerr then it’s against Leeds. Kerr is a Leeds fan and with his family watching, you just know that he will want to put in the best performance he can.
	Scott Kerr Version 2 didn’t enjoy a good debut against Rotherham and will certainly be hoping for better against Leeds.Neither of his 13 appearances for Walsall last season came against Leeds.
	Carayol was the best playing against Rotherham and enjoyed good performances against Celtic and Norwich in pre-season.The former Torquay man could easily thrive in this game and establish himself as the most exciting prospect in the City squad.
	They say everyone loves a trier and there’s no doubt that the hardest worker on the pitch will always be Broughton, but playing up front on his own is a very dangerous tactic indeed.InterestingLy Broughton has only ever played against Leeds once in his 15 year career, a 4-2 win for Rotherham in the 2008/9 season that also saw him score.

Leeds returned to the Championship after finishing as runners-up in League One last season. They had knocked on the door for several years after being relegated in 2007, losing out in the Playoffs to Doncaster Rovers and Millwall respectively. It looked for a long time last season that they would win the League One title, only to suffer a bad run of form following on from an FA Cup win over Manchester United at Old Trafford. It not only cost them the title, but did for a time look like costing them promotion altogether.

Their return to the Championship didn't go quite according to plan as they lost 2-1 at home to Derby County, that coming on the back of three straight home wins at the end of last season. If you go back on a long enough scale though, Leeds' home form isn't brilliant. They have played 14 times at home in all competitions since beating Manchester United, and they have won only four of those, lost five and drawn the rest. They face a difficult start to life in the Championship as well, with games against Nottingham Forest and Millwall following on from the Carling Cup game.

The Whites have a strong squad and will never be short of striking options. Although they lost Jermaine Beckford, they replaced him with Billy Payner, Luciano Becchio as well as still having Mike Grella and Somma, amongst others. Former Lincoln target Alan Sheehan is still at the club, as are several players who have played at League Two level, including Kasper Schmeichel, Shane Higgs, Andy Robinson and Jason Crowe.

Lincoln have one ex-Leeds player in their squad, Jamie Clapham. Davide Somma is the only former Imp in the Leeds squad.

Can Imps go marching on together into the second round?

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 10/08/2010 11:51

theimps.ka
10/08/2010 11:51

What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.

Reply Quote Report

jal jal
10/08/2010 21:23

Not Now

Reply Quote Report

Goto: Forum List•Message List•Search• Log In

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment. We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals. We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards. If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing abuse@sportnetwork.net