The two opinion changing teams clash at Sincil Bank

By Nathan Jackson
August 27 2010

Last week's results certain saw a shift in people's opinions about the potential of both Lincoln and Crewe. Both, especially Crewe, have now been touted by some as teams who could finish around the promotion places, that despite neither being that good. City gained a useful three points at Gillingham, whereas Crewe thumped Barnet.

Over the past ten or so years there have been plenty of incidents where one single moment has blurred fan's opinions to something which didn't necessarily reflect the truth. One swing of the foot and a deflection off of a defender's shoulder against Torquay in May 2003 managed to make people forget that Yeo hadn't scored for eight months. One header in against Barnet January made people forget that (albeit briefly) that Lenell John-Lewis was actually useless......and now the results of last weekend have made everyone suddenly think Crewe are genuine promotion challengers and that the Imps are heading places.

The Alex's 7-0 win over Barnet last Saturday has suddenly seen many predict them to finish high up in the table, the fact they have lost 2 out of their 3 League games, only Darlington lost more home games than they did last season and they have only achieved a top half finish once this decade, in 2002/3, then there's not to forget they've only won 3 of their last 14 League games. A bad side doesn't become a good side because of a big victory against a team that is consistently one of the worst in the division, especially one who goes bottom because of the result. It's gotten to the point where the Lincolnshire Echo referred to them as the "free-scoring" Crewe in Friday's edition of the paper.

Then we get onto Lincoln. A 1-0 win at Gillingham has suddenly seen some City fans, who were previously saying we would battle relegation all year long, say that we've now got a good chance of promotion. Here's a shocking fact for you, take out anyone who's been on loan and Cian Hughton, you'd have to go all the way back to January 16^th to find the last time a Lincoln player gave the Imps the lead. If you wanted to make that fact even more shocking, you'd have to go back to the FA Cup game at Northwich in November to find the last time that a (non-loan and not Hughton) player who is still here gave the Imps the lead (Chris Fagan).

To say that either side if capable of promotion at the moment is, in my opinion, extremely premature. However, the win for the Imps at Gillingham last week has certainly eased fears that City were near certainties for relegation, with the defence even keeping just their third clean sheet this calendar year. It was also strange to see our first win of the season come without someone whom most consider to be our best player (Carayol).

Don't get me wrong, I think that if we get a head of steam then we could very well have a half decent season. Other than Chesterfield away, we have, on paper, a run of games where we should pick up a decent amount of points. That run of games even sees City play all three of the current bottom three and four of our opponents over the next two months are below us in the table.

The Imps have an excellent recent record at home to Barnet and away at Accrington, losing just one of the nine games, winning seven. The Stevenage game will be unpredictable before the Imps hope to avenge the double that Burton did over them last season. The Imps have won on two of their last three League visits to Southend, the other only seeing a draw due to a very dubious added on time penalty. Shrewsbury will be tricky but City have won two of their last three visits to Stockport.

Out of the eleven games between now and the end of October, if City can pick up around 15 points then it will certainly lay fears of another relegation battle to rest, but then again this is Lincoln City.

 

Paul Green has, according to another unofficial site, fractured a bone and is unlikely to play, but other than him it is unlikely that the starting line up from last Saturday will change, meaning that if Carayol is fit then he will have to settle for a place on the bench, that is unless City got 4-4-2 rather than the 4-1-4-1 formation that is favoured away from home. If that is the case then the Green injury won't matter and Carayol could slot back into midfield.

Kerr and McCallum are almost certainly out through injury.

THEIMPS.KA OFFICIAL RATINGS
	Anyon may have ridden his luck at Gillingham but he did pull off some great saves and continues to impress, the despite conceding eight in his first three games.As the only goalkeeper with a realistic chance of consistently playing, it would be a huge surprise if he didn’t start.
	Anderson returned to the first team last week after heavy criticism from some fans, and he did so with a performance that earnt him a place in the League Two team of the week.With Clapham behind him, Anderson could finally get that experience and support that Moses Swaibu didn’t offer.http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Blame-Joe-Anderson/125255047521151
	Arguably our best defender, Watts’ recovery from a broken leg finally seems to have fully recovered and is able to get through games trouble free.He kept Akinfenwa very quiet last week, a striker who is better than either Zola or Donaldson.
	Pearce is arguably our most consistent defender and along with Watts, managed to keep the rather plump Akinfenwa very quiet last season.It might just be up to Pearce whether he plays though as there is a strong belief that he doesn’t want to play on a regular basis.
	Cian Hughton finally showed last week what he is capable of, a fine finish to win the game for the Imps and an excellent performance.Out of all of our outfield players, Hughton probably has the best chance of playing on a regular basis at a considerably higher level.
	Rated in midweek as a player who could succeed at the very highest level by Delroy Facey, which is usually a precursor to a poor performance.Jarrett looks to be our best attacking threat at the moment, setting up last week’s goal and almost scoring several times himself.
	Clapham came into the team against Gillingham last week and did exceptionally well. Although he started in midfield, Clapham more than happily supported the defence and hopefully it will be a repeat on Saturday.
	Keltie has been rather anonymous so far this season, but this will hopefully improve and he will end up having as much impact as he did towards the end of last season.
	Set to make his home debut for the club following his outing against Gillingham last week. In true recent Lincoln tradition, he doesn’t look like scoring many but I suppose he can’t do any worse than the other’s.
	Delroy missed an absolute sitter against Gillingham and will no doubt want to make up for it by scoring just his second goal for the club. Will probably start on the wing again.
	Drewe came agonisingly close to scoring his first City goal last week, only to be denied by an extremely late clearance of the line. If Sutton players 4-4-2 then Broughton will probably start up front with Hutchinson.

 

The Imps and the Alex haven't met a lot recently, infact only three meetings have occurred during this millennium. Last season saw two draws between the club, a 0-0 draw at Gresty Road that saw all of Crewe's 18 shots go off target, whereas the Imps dominated the game at Sincil Bank with Davide Somma scoring a debut goal, only for Crewe to score with one of their only shots of the game.

Most Imps fans will remember the game in the Carling Cup in 2005. It would be the last time that the Imps would win a knock-out game of any description until November 2009 and it started well as Beevers and Molango gave City a 2-0 lead. Crewe did pull one back but a brace from Gary Birch and a late Marvin Robinson header gave the Imps the win.

That Crewe squad included a future Imp, Adie Moses. Moses is one of a small handful of players to have played for both clubs over the last decade. Anthony Elding, Michael O'Connor and Stefan Oakes are the only other players to have played for both during the last ten years.

Former Crewe player Anthony Tonkin almost joined Lincoln City in 2007, but instead went into the non-League after failing to agree a contract, and Gareth McAuley's £150,000 to Crewe from Lincoln fell through because Crewe refused to pay an agent's fee. That transfer falling through meant that the Imps couldn't launch a second bid for Macclesfield's Jon Parkin.

 

Crewe haven't had the best of starts to the season, losing two of their opening three fixtures. It started with a 1-0 home reverse to Hereford before losing 3-2 at Cheltenham. They had progressed in the Carling Cup however with a win over Derby before last week's 7-0 win over Barnet. They lost earlier this week in the second round of the Carling Cup to Ipswich.

The 7-0 win over Barnet wasn't their first decent haul at home, beating Accrington 5-1 and Grimsby 4-2 towards the end of last season, but they also ended last year with just one win in their last eight games, five of those games ending in defeat, whilst losing 3-0 away at a Bury side that couldn't score from open play to save their lives before hand.

Crewe's build up to the season included a mission to get 3000 season tickets called "Target 3000". It amusingly involved several of the players having their heads superimposed onto the bodies of the cast members of 300.

They have a very interesting set of fixtures coming up after the game against the Imps. A trip to Stevenage is followed by three home games in just over two weeks as Bury, Oxford and Macclesfield all travel to Gresty Road, with a nice local derby at Burton in between.