Imps and Accrington meet for the 10th time

A mini-milestone will occur on Saturday as the Imps and Accrington Stanley will meet in a League fixture for just the 10th ever time. City have won six of the nine meetings that have ever occured between the sides and will aim for a seventh that would see them move above their opponents in the table.

There aren't many things that bug me in football, but one of those things is after a side who had previously gone bust have worked their way up to the Football League and all you hear on football highlight shows is something like "They won their first game in the Football League since <insert year here>," Accrington are one of those sides.

Let's get something straight, before 2006, Accrington Stanley had never been in the Football League. A different club with the same name had been in the Football League, but this Accrington Stanley competed in non-League throughout it's history until five years ago. It was the same when we played Aldershot a few weeks ago, and people kept saying that was our first draw against Aldershot Town since whenever it was.....even though the Imps and Aldershot Town had never drawn before that.

Right, I didn't mean to start this introduction with a mini-rant.

City have a brilliant chance to effectively guarantee survival as a win over Accrington, combined with Barnet and Stockport failing to win against promotion sides, would give City up to a 14 point advantage of the drop zone with just thirteen games remaining, it's an advantage that you get the feeling even Lincoln wouldn't be able to throw away. However, we certainly shouldn't estimate our opponents, not only because they are above us in the table, but they do regularly outplay the Imps.

Lincoln rarely dominate games against Accrington and Stanley should have won on their last two visits to Sincil Bank. They were 1-0 ahead in 2008/9, had a goal disallowed and two cleared off of the line and were dominant for an hour before City broke a Football League record (see below) to win 5-1. Last season they again were the better team before two late goals secured the win for City. Underestimate Accrington at your own risk. They are far better than people give them credit for.

City will definitely be without Gavin Hoyte after the defender was seriously injured and will miss the rest of the season. Luke Howell will also be out after picking up a slight injury against Oxford. This will give Mustapha Carayol the perfect opportunity to continue where he left off against Oxford. The Gambian produced a brilliant performance that ended up setting up both own goals.

Other than that it will more than likely be the same side that beat Oxford on Tuesday evening.

THE LIKELY CITY STARTING XI
	Carson has heavily contributed to the opposition scoring in both of the last two games at Sincil Bank and conceded four at Barnet in between. He needs a clean sheet to get his confidence back.
	Hunt put in a decent display against Oxford and continues to enjoy a decent loan spell at the club. It'll be interesting to see what he does if he goes back to Notts and continues to sit on the bench. Would he want to come here permanently?
	Although Oxford got numerous shots on target, the fact that a lot of them never looked like going in was because Hone and Watts restricted the space than they got, threw their bodies in the way and had it not been for a mistake from Carson then the pair would have gained a deserved clean sheet.
	See Watts.
	Another game and another goal that came from Kelly's side of the pitch. I'm still not even slightly impressed with the Reading loanee and you get the feeling that if Accrington do score, it will come from his side of the pitch.
	Set up our first goal and continues to look dangerous down the left wing, then again the right winger didn't have a difficult challenge against an Oxford right back who seemed very reluctant to press him.
	Fuseini hasn't exactly set the world alight since he joined City. Whether it's due to a lack of match fitness, or just a lack of confidence remains a mystery, however, he has played regularly at League One so he must have something about him.
	Tuesday night summed Josh O'Keefe up, scored a goal but you would have otherwise not really noticed he was playing. It was yet another game that seemed to pass him by and had it not been for his goal, you get a feeling there would have been a lot of calls for him to be out of the squad.
	Carayol was brilliant on Tuesday night and showed exactly what he can do when he's in the mood, the only question you have to ask yourself is which Carayol is going to turn up as he is awfully inconsistent.
	Another quiet night for the Millwall man, only really noticeable when he mishit his shot in a one-on-one. He has thirteen games left to reach twenty goals for the season, surely that's doable?
	He was better on Tuesday than he has been for a few weeks and his goalbound effort was booted into his own net by an Oxford defender, denying him a first goal since February 5th.

The clubs haven't shared many players in recent times, infact only Gary King and Jamie Clarke have both played for both clubs within the recent past, and neither set either club alight.

City's first ever competitive meeting with Accrington Stanley came in September 2006 as the unbeaten Imps swept aside the recently promoted Stanley. Martin Gritton opened the scoring before a double from Stallard (right), Roberts did pull one back towards the end. The reverse game came in February 2007 just a few days after the Imps lost 4-1 at home to Hereford, goals from Lee Beevers and Scott Kerr weren't enough for a win as Accrington twice came from behind with goals from Todd and Mullin getting a point for the hosts.

When City beat Accrington in August 2007, little did we know that goals from Louis Dodds and Dany N'Guessan would provide the goals for the last win before a winless run of fifteen games in all competitions, a run that saw us bottom. However, by the time City made a Tuesday night trip to Accrington in February of that City, we were in the middle of a run of five wins in a row. City, with newly appointed assistant manager Iffy Onuora in tow (he had only been announced three hours before kick off), dominated the game at Accrington. Mark Stallard scored early for what would be his last goal for the Imps before strikes from Ben Wright and Lee Beevers gave City a 3-0 win.

The dominance City had over Stanley came under serious threat as Accrington were brilliant in the first half in December 2008. Miles brilliantly opened the scoring from distance and on the angle before Stanley also had a goal disallowed and twice hit chances cleared off of the line. A triple substitution at half time lead to a bit of footballing history. Patulea equalised in the 68th minute for City before Brown and Wright put the result beyond doubt. Patulea again scored in the 93rd minute but strangely, whilst on a hatrick, he let Lee Frecklington take a 96th minute penalty. It was reported on Sky Sports as the quickest five goals had ever been scored in a Football League match. The return match towards the end of the season was far more routine, with Scott Kerr scoring twice to give City a 2-0 win.

Accrington finally got a result against the Imps at the start of last season as Darren Kempson's header just after half time was enough to beat a below-par City side, and Accrington should have secured a double in February of that season as despite a Symes goal and several wasted chances, Accrington conceded a 83rd minute equaliser through Lennon and then Kempson, who had scored the winner in the earlier match, also scored the winner in this match, it was just a pity for him that it was at the wrong end of the pitch.

The last meeting between the sides was very one sided as ten man City were well beaten by their Lancashire opponents. In what would turn out to be the last time Chris Sutton would manage City on the road, goals from McConville and a Gornell double gave Accrington the comfortable win.

Underestimate Accrington and you will be beaten. They are in no danger of joining the club of teams relegated in their fifth season in the Football League. They come to Sincil Bank in fine form, winning their last three games and losing just one of their last six games and in eleven games since losing 2-0 at Accrington, they have only lost twice, both to automatic promotion chasing sides. They have also beaten Wycombe, drawn against Chesterfield  and beaten Playoff chasers Crewe and Torquay, they are far from pushovers.

Although they, and I say this with all due respect, have no recognisable stars, they do have a striker who has a goal average of better than a goal every three games. Gornell, who scored twice against the Imps earlier in the season, has netted 10 in his 26 League appearances for the club so far. Defender Phil Edwards and midfielder Sean McConville also both have eight. However, it appears that keeping these three quiet is one of the keys to beating Accrington as no-one else has scored more than five.

They don't have many names that would be familiar to Lincoln fans. They are no former Imps but they do have former Grimsby and Notts County man Andy Parkinson, well travelled Ian Dunbavin and even Rory Boulding has managed to separate himself from his conjoined twin Michael.

Recently Accrington agreed to let manager Coleman talk to Bradford, however, the two clubs then couldn't agree a package and Coleman has now remained at Stanley.