By Nathan Jackson
May 11 2007

Lincoln will aim for their first playoff win away from Sincil Bank in 4 years as they travel to Bristol Rovers on Saturday evening. It will be the first of three steps the Imps must take if they are to win promotion to League One for the first time in 8 years. City have an extremely tough task to get anything at Bristol Rovers, a ground that hasn't been friendly to City down recent years. 46 games, joy, tears and a whole later of nail-biting later, we have finally arrived at the playoffs…..again. When Adie Moses poked in his debut goal for the Imps way back in the first game of the season, I truly felt that my pre-season optimism had been justified and it just continued to get better…..until November. It was around November time that the football slowly started to disappear and we were back to the hoofing of the previous 4 seasons and results very slowly went from good to disappointing.  Leading into February we were still hanging on in the automatic promotion race and although we weren’t playing particularly well, we were still getting results, then came Hereford. The game against Hereford at home just seemed to destroy any confidence that the Imps had left and we subsequently went on our worst run since finishing 22^nd in 2001/2. Infact, if City had lost on the last day then not only would we have slipped out of the top 5 for the first time since August 12^th, but we would have slipped out of the playoffs all together due to other results. So that’s the season in a nutshell and 6 days from now the season will either end at the semi final stage of the Playoffs or it will continue for another week as the Imps try and win promotion to the 3^rd tier for the first time since the 1998/9 season.  Our opponents in these playoffs are Bristol Rovers, and although the Gas haven’t finished above the Imps since entering the division 6 years ago, and they haven’t scored past City in the last 4 meetings, they are a side that can not be taken lightly at the best of times. At the beginning of the season I had predicted them to finish 2^nd, I was slightly off with finishing positions but I correctly predicted all 7 of the teams in the Top 7. Although they did not live up the expectations of some people following their strong finish to last season, a finish in the playoffs will be considered a success considering that Rovers have spent the majority of the season in the bottom half of the table. This season’s playoffs are one of the toughest in recent years, I would be incredibly difficult to pick a winner out of the 4 teams. MK Dons and Lincoln have been in the Top 5 all season but both will be disappointed to only finish in the playoffs, Bristol Rovers are the form team but only a late run saved them from a midtable finish. Shrewsbury are the dark-horses in these players, but they are an extremely capable of getting past MK Dons and shouldn’t be over-estimated. Alan Marriott will almost certainly make his 11^th playoff game for the Imps, becoming the only player to play in 100% of all City’s playoff games in the process. Paul Morgan and Nat Brown will be the likely central defensive partnership in front of Marriott, with Lee Beevers and Nicky Eaden on either side of that pairing. If Schofield and Deehan are going to go for an attacking formation, then the midfield will more than likely be Hughes, Kerr and Frecklington with Forrester, Stallard and Mendes all playing up front.  

If they are going more defensive then it’s possible that Mayo will be picked for the left back position with Lee Beevers moving into the right hand side of midfield, Junior Mendes making way for him.

Making the playoffs is a huge achievement for Bristol Rovers when you consider they spent the majority of the season in the lower half of the table. However, Rovers seem to be over-estimating how much their recent good form will be leading into the playoffs. Having not lost since late March, Rovers are extremely confident of a trip to Wembley. It was a similiar story for the Imps last season, City lost just 4 times in 29 games leading into last season's playoffs and lost both legs.

Obviously though the Imps will a tough time containing a good striking partnership. Richard Walker has scored one more goal than Jamie Forrester this season (although he's played 15 more games than Forrester has) and Rickie Lambert is one of the best young strikers in the lower leagues.

The only other player likely to make a difference for Bristol Rovers is their goalkeeper, Steve Phillips. If he hadn't been for him at Sincil Bank on December 5th, City would have completed an absolute rout. The keeper was a relatively untroubled bystander a few weeks ago between the sides, City creating just 5 opportunities, 4 of which hit the woodwork.

This is arguably the least-predictable tie in the entire playoff picture covering all 3 divisions this season. The only thing that is for sure though is that the winning team will have earnt their spot in the history books.