By Nathan Jackson
October 7 2011

Lincoln City will face Tamworth on Saturday in the hopes of making it back to back wins for the first time since being relegated to the Blue Square Premier. The Lambs are far from easy opponents though and they have one of City's Playoff campaign men in their ranks.

Lincoln City go in search of their first back to back victories since January when they travel to Tamworth on Saturday. Currently on a run of just 1 defeat in 4, City will be confident of getting something against a Tamworth side who started the season well but have gone severely off form since then, winning just two of their lasteight games.

There have been signed of improvement at Lincoln in recent weeks and we are very slowly moving up the table. It's obviously not enough to mount a promotion charge this season (not realistically anyway) but the 4-5-1 (and it's not 4-3-3 like some say) is making it very difficult for teams to break us down at the moment, with only two goals against City being scored in that time, one of those was a penalty and the other was when we had a player off of the pitch.

However, City should not get careless just because fewer goals are flying into the net. City started last season without many goals flying into the net but the same old problem of not scoring many goals was the main problem. It's an issue that City are continuing to struggle with this season, only scoring 11 goals in the 13 games so far.

We certainly should underestimated a Tamworth side who have won half of their home games so far and have surprised many who had tipped them for relegation fodder early on.

City will have the usual squad to choose from and will more than likely stay with the 4-5-1 formation (it's not 4-3-3, I don't care what anyone says) that has seen City lose just one of the last four. The main talking point will probably be who should start up front. Sam Smith (right) scored against Bath but has otherwise been largely anonymous during the games that he has played, whereas Kyle Perry has scored against a former club already this season, but like Smith is often anonymous in games. Barraclough could potentially get a nod if Tilson elects for 4-4-2. Jamie Taylor remains injured.

The striking problem has become even more evident since the use of the 4-5-1 formation began, although Sutton will be adament that it is 4-3-3 as Gavin McCallum and Simon Russell also join the attack when City have the ball, but realistically it's 4-5-1, especially when you consider that McCallum and Russell have scored just once between them and that goal came against bottom of the table Bath City.

In defence we probably won't see any change as they have only conceded two goals in the last four games and neither came from a usual situation.

Elsewhere it should be the same as the team that beat Bath City last Saturday.

After barely surviving from relegation last term, Tamworth started this season quite well but have fallen away from the promotion chasing pack in recent weeks. 3 wins in the opening 5 games saw them sitting pretty in the Playoff places, but just two wins in the eight following games has seen them slip down the table.

They are currently on a run of four games without victory and have picked up just one point from their last two home games, drawing with Stockport and losing to Forest Green.

Iseyden Christie, who has often been a thorn in City's side down the years, is their leading goalscorer this season and Tamworth haven't lost when he has scored, with his goals picking up a total of seven points already for the Lambs.

Tamworth are averaging just under 1,000 fans a game at the moment, down on last season where in they achieved crowds of more than 1,000 in five of their last six home games.

Both sides have former players of the other playing for them at the moment. Lincoln have Tamworth's leading goalscorer from last season, Kyle Perry, whereas Tamworth has Patrick Kanyuka, a player who many City fans view as one of the worst in the club's history, and Paul Green, a man who before being released in the summer was the longest serving player at City and the only one left who had played in a Playoff match for the Imps.

Green has been the main talking point in today's Lincolnshire Echo. He was the last man to score a Football League goal in a game where Lincoln didn't lose and it is likely that had City remained a Football League club that Green would have stayed.

"Paul was on far too much money for where we are as a club," Steve Tilson told the Echo. "But he is doing well down there at the moment and is playing left-sided centre-half. He is fully committed, nice and aggressive and there is no doubt that he will want to put a shift in tomorrow. If things were different, who knows what would have happened? I wanted to keep Delroy Facey, but the money made it impossible."

Green was one of a plethora of players who left the Imps following on from the club's relegation and one of the few that remained, Gavin McCallum, was also full of praise for Paul.

"I thought we would have kept him because he is a good player, he is very committed and gave absolutely everything while he was here.Was I surprised to see him go? Of course I was, in fact both he and Cian Hughton going was a shock, because they both played in the same position and were very good."

The clubs have shared an unusually high amount of players in recent years. Stefan Oakes, Tom Kemp, Michael Blackwood, Simon Weaver, Matthew Ghent, Jude Stirling, Rory May, Peter Folkes and David Cameron have all been at both clubs since the turn of the century.

There are no recent games to talk about as games between Lincoln and Tamworth have never played each other in a competitive fixture.

Imps hope to take Lambs to the slaughter

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 07/10/2011 09:54

theimps.ka
07/10/2011 09:54

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barryimp
07/10/2011 14:36

I should like to go forward 7 days and see where we are then. I predict 5 points.

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barryimp
07/10/2011 14:52

Changed my mind to 4 points. 1 win 1 draw and 1 defeat

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