By Nathan Jackson
January 15 2011

It's been a while since I have done one of these and it comes as no real coincedence that it comes after a defeat that sent us bottom of the League. Infact, I'm in the mood for a good old moan because at this rate, we'll be heading to Bath City, Tamworth and Barrow next season.

Tamworth's The Lamb (right) - One of the Stadiums City will be going to if we go down

FACTS ABOUT TAMWORTH AND THE LAMB;

Capacity - 4,065 (518 of which is seated)

Average Crowd in 2009/10 - 1,086

Price of the Away End : £14 for adults

Former Imp Stefan Oakes plays for Tamworth. Other former Imps to reply their trade at the Lamb in recent seasons include Michael Blackwood and Simon Weaver.

I'm going to start this article by listing the clubs who look likely to be in the Blue Square Premier next season. Grimsby Town, York, Darlington, Cambridge, Rushden and Diamonds, Bath City, Tamworth and Kettering will all probably be there and as it stands, so will we. I mean this as no sign of disrespect to any of those teams but I really don't want to be in that division next season. I read a quote from Darlington's Mark Cooper a while back that "When you're in the non-League, no-one sees past that status." How true that is.

I think that if/when we go down then we would not come back for a while, if at all. Clubs have gone down with far better squads than our's and have yet to come back. York have been down there since 2004, Cambridge and Kidderminster since 2005 and I could go on and you even look at Grimsby Town. Grimsby needed a season of stability and they have gotten that, currently sitting 9th in the Blue Square Premier, but that's it.

Don't get me wrong, the Blue Square Premier Division isn't like going into oblivion, it's just another division, but it's one where I really don't want to be, but there are certain aspects to our club at the moment that are making this a near certainty at the moment. The main aspect is that the table doesn't lie, we are the worst team in the Football League. Obviously we have up to five games in hand on the teams above us, but the problem with games in hand is that you're not guaranteed to get points. Wrexham used to be a fine example of a team who regularly had games in hand, they would talk about games in hand as if they were already wins, only to them fail to pick up significant points.

LEFT : Bath City's Twerton Park - Another destination of the Imps if relegation occurs

FACTS ABOUT BATH CITY AND TWERTON;

Capacity - 8,880 (1,006 of which is seated)

Average Crowd in 2009/10 - 633 (Blue Square South)

Price of the Away End : £14 for adults seating, £13 in the terrace

This is Bath City's first season back in the Conference having won the Blue Square South Playoff Final last season.

When you see that we have up to five games in hand you think that some points will be coming our way.....however, when you look at the teams who we'll be playing then it's hardly a who's who of definitely winnable games. Let's start with 10 days from now, Cheltenham away. Our record at Cheltenham, or even against Cheltenham in general, is awful, especially when you take into consideration that they are having a half-decent season this year. Three weeks later and a trip to Aldershot Town. Although the Shots aren't having a good season, they are still a side City rarely beat and we've lost there twice, both times with far better sides than what we have now.

March begins with Oxford at home, City's record against teams coming up from the non-League is atrocious. The fixture that looks most favourable for City is away at Macclesfield. Even this pitiful excuse we have for a side managed to beat Macclesfield earlier this season, plus Macclesfield haven't beaten us since New Year's Day in 2007 and last season's 0-0 at Sincil Bank is the only time since then that they haven't lost to us. The fifth rearranged game comes away at Port Vale, anyone who was at Port Vale last season doesn't need reminding of how good they are.

So why am I relatively certain we are likely to go down? It main falls down to a mixture of things really. As much as I want to blame Sutton for putting together this piss poor excuse for a squad (and believe me, there is a heavy extent of that), you just can't account for players who simply don't care or those that don't concentrate long enough to make a save that a five year old could make.....and that leads me neatly onto Joe Anyon.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't expect miracles from a goalkeeper, I accept that they are going to concede goals and make some mistakes during the season, but the problem with Joe Anyon (right) is he makes mistakes all season long. It's getting to the point now you that you know that to get anything from the game, you've got to score an absolute minimum of two goals. Other than the Northampton game, you'd struggle to find a game since the 2-1 win at Morecambe on November 13th where one of the goals wasn't either his fault, or he was one of the prime suspects. Until we get a better goalkeeper, we're not going to move away from the relegation zone.

Then you get onto the defence in front of him, or to be more precise, Moses Swaibu. Swaibu is quite frankly the worst defender I have seen in a City shirt. Much like Anyon, he makes at least one fuck up a game. The sooner Swaibu goes, the better. Unlike Anyon, we don't have to wait for an sufficient replacement, he's already the worst defender throughout the club, even at youth team level.

Speaking of players who aren't good enough but somehow remain in the first team, Delroy Facey and Josh O'Keefe. Other than the goal at Northampton, O'Keefe has done precisely sod all this season........whereas Delroy Facey is an awful footballer......whoever's idea it was to recommend him as the captain against Wycombe was obviously having a laugh.......how can you give the captaincy to the third worst outfield player you're starting with??

One positive thing is that we're now starting to score goals and even better, they're decent goals. The goal against Wycombe was arguably the best goal of the season so far. If we can get two strikers in the starting eleven then we'll be fine, but for now we'll probably have to settle for Grimes being partnered by Delroy Facey.

The game against Stockport next Saturday is now absolutely massive. It's probably the best chance we'll have for three points for the next few weeks and it could be a season changer.....for better or for worse. If we win then we're only two points behind them with five games in hand.....and you'd hope we'd be able to at least get two draws from those five games mentioned earlier....plus with Stockport's awful goal difference, they are arguably the most vulnerable team above us.

Reaction to the defeat to Wycombe

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 15/01/2011 22:23

theimps.ka
15/01/2011 22:23

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Rob Peel
15/01/2011 22:51

Very god article. The game next week could kick start the entire season win and who knows how we will kick on from it.
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A defeat well that does not bear thinking about it would put us 8 points behind Stockport confidence would be at an all time low and i feel we will struggle to get out of it.
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The games in hand do worry me as playing well they are great to have...Playing like we are is very similar to the Wrexham situation - And dont forget they played us off the park in that final game.

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barryimp
16/01/2011 08:45

My own view is similar to you. I think we could end up like Wrexham.

You may remember their fans saying "We will be back". Well that was a couple of seasons ago.

We can get out of this but its going to be a close run thing.

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