Imps vs Shrewsbury

Now it's fair to say when we beat Cambridge 3 weeks ago to go 6 points clear of 8th, I got over confident, however, 4 games without a win means that now the Imps are struggling to hold onto a playoff place and could slip down to 9th if they lose to Shrewsbury Town.

However, there are reasons to be optimistic, last week the Imps played quite well and came very close to getting the full 3 points at the ice rink, sorry, Roots Hall and Sincil Bank had become a fortress before the Wycombe game a few weeks ago, this is shown by the fact that is was only the 2nd home game this calender year that City hadn't won and the first defeat at Sincil Bank since the middle of October when we were beating 4-3 by Orient.

The squad is pretty much fully fit althoug Morgan could be a doubt again with the hamstring injury picked up before the game against Wycombe. Beevers should start his final game before his Under 21 duties which rule him out of both games over the Easter weekend. Defri Asamoah will also look to continue his impressive start to Imps life after a good performance last week a goal for the reserves midweek.

Most likely formation (Right to left)

Marriott

Beevers      Bloomer        McAuley          McCombe     Sandwith

Butcher        Gain

GTF          Yeo       Asamoah

Shrewsbury Town were a lot of people's favourites to return straight back down the conference. After they were relegated in 2003, they became only the 3rd ever team (after City and Darlo) to bounce straight back up into the league. They came up through the conference playoffs after a dramatic win over Aldershot Town at Stoke's Brittania Stadium. However, it's been far from plain sailing since their return to the league.

Their first league game was actually against City and the Imps came out with a 1-0 win. They also lost their next two matches before a 2-0 win over Northampton looked like it would kick start their season, however, 2 more defeats followed before a win at home to Cheltenham before a run of 10 games without a win saw them looked doomed to relegation. 3 defeats followed knocking them out of the FA Cup and the LDV Vans Trophy as well as a 3-0 reverse at Notts County. A 2-0 win over Swansea followed the defeat to Histon in the FA Cup before another 4 game winless streak was ended by their first back to back wins this season with an impressive 4-0 home win over Darlo followed by a 2-0 home win over Bristol Rovers, however, they failed to win any of their next 5 before a 4-1 home win over Orient spared off a run of 4 wins in 6 games, easily Shrewsbury best run of the season despite all the teams who they beat weren't exactly setting the league alight. This run included their biggest win of the season, a 5-0 win over the team they came up from the conference with, Chester City.  A draw at Mansfield followed before Macclesfield showed why they are heading for promotion with a 1-0 win at Gay Meadow last week.

Shrewsbury's key problem has been the lack of a regular goal scorer, Luke Rodger's spell in the conference seems to have frozen his goals supply although he always seems to score at Sincil Bank. Their goal scoring problems can be highlighted that from their 37 games so far, only 10 times have they scored more than once in a match.

Key Players:  Scott Howie

Shrewsbury just edge Lincoln in terms of wins over the other with 14 compared to City's 13. However, they haven't beaten City under Keith Alexander in the league losing twice and drawing once. Before that Shrewsbury owned the Imps. A likely score from this game could be 2-1 to Shrewsbury as 9 games in the history of the two teams have ended with the away side winning 2-1.