City have a chance for a quickfire reprieve

Lincoln City face a quickfire chance to make up for the defeat with Bradford when they travel to Northampton's Sixfields. City have an atrocious record at Northampton, but the Cobblers had an awful record at Sincil Bank before winning in November.

It's the meeting between two sides who lost on New Year's Day and both sides who will be desperate for three points to help them pull away from the relegation zone. After three wins in a row that started back in November, the Imps have now gone three without a win in all competitions, losing twice at home in that time. However, the only shining grace of this game against Northampton is that City have been in decent form away from home.

Steve Tilson took over officially on October 18th and since then the Imps have yet to lose away from home and have scored twice on each occasion, including away at a Wycombe side who now sit in third place in the table. However, City's record at Northampton makes it a far more daunting prospect than facing a team just five points above us would seem.

After the poor performance against Bradford, the team certainly owe the fans something to renew hope as we can't keep relying on other teams to avoid winning. City have been on 19 points since November 20th and yet somehow we haven't moved into the relegation zone once in the time since. With big relegation six-pointers against Northampton and Stockport, it's vital City pick up some points, especially as we have games against three members of the current top eight.

Lincoln can only move as high as 21st with a win, but a defeat could push City to the very bottom of the table. Barnet travel to a free-falling Stevenage and if Lincoln lose, any points picked up for Barnet would put City in the drop zone, as would both losing, but Lincoln losing by at least 3 more goals than Barnet. Hereford have the slightly trickier task of travelling to Aldershot, although the Shots haven't won at home for quite some time.

Danny Hone has now returned on loan from Darlington and given the performances of Watts and Swaibu, you wouldn't actually be that surprised if he became involved in the starting XI.

Tilson has said that we could expect a lot of changes to the starting XI and when you look at the first team that started against Bradford, you would be struggling to find more than maybe two or three that deserve to continue to start. Hopefully Howell will replace the ineffective Josh O'Keefe and we could easily see Ben Hutchinson return to the starting XI.

THE LIKELY CITY STARTING XI
	Anyon is lucky that there is no other goalkeeper with a realistic chance of starting at this club. He is costing us points on a regular basis and certainly needs to improve if he expects Tilson to keep relying on him and not bring in a loan goalkeeper.   His last League clean sheet came on October 23rd, since then only Nuneaton in the FA Cup have failed to score against him.
	Clapham is one of the few defenders to have come out with any credit so far this season. Generally consistent without the ever really excelling. It might be worth at some point moving him to the centre of defence and put Anderson on the left.
	I used to rate Watts, an exciting young defender, but over the recent months he has gone downhill, that might be down to being stuck next to Moses Swaibu, but he could be one of those in for a surprise exclusion from the squad if he doesn't continue to improve.
	With the clown known as Swaibu costing City goals, Danny Hone's return couldn't have come at a better time. Tilson has said he wasn't improved when he saw Hone, but surely Hone can't be a worse option that Swaibu, and Hone deserves his chance.
	Hoyte must wonder what he has stumbled into. He has gone about his business since he came to Sincil Bank several months ago, but has unfortunately been part of a defence that contains Moses Swaibu.
	Carayol certainly needs to learn how to pass the ball. There have been too many occasions where he has come up against two defenders and tried to beat them all on his own, it became increasingly frustrating as time went on against Bradford.
	Jarrett needs to learn how to put quality crosses into the box and not ones that go over everyone and out for a free kick. Everyone seems to think his crosses are excellent, but the problem is that he hits them too hard and they end up becoming a wasted chance.
	Howell came on against Bradford and was everything that Josh O'Keefe isn't, exciting, passionate and impactful on a game. Hopefully he will start against against Northampton.   If he does start, it will be his fifth League match for the Imps.
	In a midfield that lacks passion, Kerr is probably the man who you need and although he may not be there in terms of skill, I'd rather have a passionate Kerr than O'Keefe.
	Three goals in recent times have seen Grimes move near the top of the scoring charts and he is one of the few players you could consider to be an automatic starter.
	Hutchinson may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I'd rather have him than either Facey or Broughton as at least Hutchinson scores every one in a while.

Lincoln's poor record during night games continued when Northampton headed to Sincil Bank in November with an identical record at Lincoln to what Lincoln currently hold at Northampton. Goals from Beckwith and Johnson gave Northampton only their third ever victory at Sincil Bank.

That was the first defeat City had suffered under Steve Tilson and Northampton were also the first team to defeat Chris Sutton's Lincoln when Steve Guinan scored late to give Northampton the points at Sixfield. The return fixture at Sincil Bank saw Matt Saunders give City the lead directly from the free kick before John Johnson gained an undeserved draw for the visitors.

2005/6 saw both games end 1-1. Gary Birch equalised from Bojic's opener on the opening day of the season, and it took a last minute Josh Low goal to gain Northampton a draw after Birch had opened earlier. That came a season after both games had ended with a home win. Goals from Sabin and McGleish had given Northampton a 2-0 lead at Sincil Bank, but a double from Simon Yeo and last minute Marcus Richardson goal completed the comeback.

The two teams met again towards the end of that season and with three games to go the Imps needed to avoid defeat against Northampton to guarantee the Playoffs, whereas Northampton would definitely not be included in the end-of-season lottery. Northampton would win the game 1-0 and both teams would end on the same amount of points and both made the Playoffs. Both would lose to Steve Tilson's Southend.

2003/4 saw two draws, 0-0 at Sincil Bank and 1-1 at Sixfields, the latter of which saw Simon Yeo equalise late from a Paul Trollope opener.

Lincoln and Northampton haven't shared many players during the last ten years, although three of Lincoln's 2006/7 squad were Cobblers at some point, Jamie Forrester, Ryan Amoo and Junior Mendes. Current Imp Adam Watts spent time aet Northampton in 2008/9 and the clubs have also shared Guy Branston, Derek Asamoah, Lawrie Dudfield and Richard Butcher during the last eleven years.

Northampton got off to a traditional poor start and it prompted a seeming tradition amongst some Cobblers fans. Last season a lot of Northampton fans were calling for Sampson's head, saying he was incompetent and useless, a quick shift to a promotion chasing side and they said Sampson was a tactical genius. Then they got off to a poor start this seaosn and all of a sudden he was incompetent again.

Northampton didn't win in the League until September 11th. Results in the League continued to be poor but they did achieve a memorable Carling Cup win against Liverpool at Anfield. Despite winning their next game, a run of six defeats in a row left them in the relegation zone with just ten points from thirteen games. Wins at Gillingham and Lincoln propelled them up the table, but their form has been mixed ever since.

They are one of the few sides to lose to Barnet recently but did win against Stockport and Stevenage before Saturday's defeat to Crewe.

Northampton's squad is pretty average on paper. They don't appear to have a lot of match winners in their squad and after they won the battle to sign Tadgh Purcell in the summer, he has subsequently failed to score for them. Their top scorers have six goals each. However, take Kevin Thornton's goals out of Northampton's games and they would only lose a single point, coming from a draw against Wycombe. McKenzie's six have all come in the League but take his goals out of Northampton's games and they would only lose two points. So in other words, two players with twelve goals between them have only won three points.

The Cobblers were also part of Hereford's revival, with the Cobblers surrounding a 3-0 lead to lose 4-3 at home to the Bulls.