Notts County vs The Imps

By Nathan Jackson
March 31 2005

The Imps have given themselves a great chance of promotion with 3 straights wins, now for Notts County. The Imps are now 6 games from the end of the season and who knows what will happen with City only being 3 points off the playoffs. However, we must now concentrate an important game.

It's amazing really how much different 2 weeks can make. 2 weeks ago, before the home game with Shrewsbury, the Imps were struggling to stay in the playoffs but now, after wins over the Shrews, Rushden and Scunthorpe, City are primed for an assault on automatic promotion. With 6 games left, it's all in the Imps hands playing 5 fellow promotion hopefuls after Saturday's game with Notts County.

Keith Alexander has the better version of a selection headache. Lee Beevers has returned from his Welsh under 21 duties but will have to work hard to get back into the team as the combination of McAuley, Morgan, McCombe, Futcher and Sandwith conceeded just 1 goal over the Easter weekend. The formation will more than likely stay the same as the one that beat Scunthorpe convincingly on Monday.

Most likely formation (Right to left)

Marriott

McAuley     Morgan        Futcher     McCombe     Sandwith

Butcher    Gain

Yeo      Green      Taylor-Fletcher.

 

County started the season with a draw at home to Chester but failed to win until they faced Lincoln at Sincil Bank where they won 2-1 thanks to one of City's worst displays of the season. However, they lost 5 of their next 11 games ending with a 5-1 defeat at Rushden and Diamonds. Inconsistency cost Notts County dear as they stayed in the lower reaches of the table, however, such was the dire form of the teams below them, they haven't been in any real danger of being relegated. Their inconsitency sometimes see them win 3 in 5 games before losing 4 on the trot.

Their last game was on Tuesday night when a suprise 3-1 win at League 2 leaders, that after 4 straight defeats. Notts County's away form sees them as one of the few teams to have a better away record than home as they have collected 25 on their travels compared to only 21 at home. Their home wins came against Boston (2-1), Shrewsbury (3-0), Cambridge United (2-1), Scunny (2-0) and Swansea (1-0)

The two teams haven't met a lot recently with the game at Sincil Bank earlier in the season being the first meeting in 6 seasons between the two teams. As usual with the trend, County won at Sincil Bank with a 2-1 scoreline with a double from Tony Scully putting the Magpies 2-0 up before GTF pulled one back in the last few minutes.

As I said, it's a bit of a trend for County to win at Sincil Bank but the Imps usually win at Meadow Lane. In 1998/9, County won 1-0 at Sincil Bank 6 months after the Imps had won 3-2 in Nottingham. The season before, which saw both teams promoted saw the Imps get their first away win of the season with a 2-1 win that was marred in controversy before a thriller of a game finished 5-3 to County at Sincil Bank.