City's season so far has been one of misery so far, with moving 4th after 3 games being the highlight so far. The 2 wins that made that possible were against teams currently fighting relegation. That could be a great omen for the Imps and our next 3 opponents are all in the bottom 4.

With Schofield suddenly deciding to play the role of "tinkerman" with most of the squad, it could be very interesting to see if the Imps can replicate the wins over Mansfield and Accrington with a side that could have 3 or 4 different players to that game.

Alan Marriott is one of the very few players seemingly guaranteed a first team start. Hoof, Beevers and Croft are also likely to start, with only the right back position being debateable in the defence. Amoo has been blamed for a fair few goals recently and it could potentially lead to the return in defence of Paul Green. Alternatively Beevers can be moved onto the right with Moses coming into the middle.

Most of the midfield haven't deserved their starting place in recent weeks, but it will be a major surprise if it's not the same starting midfield pack as before, with N'Guessan, Frecklington, Hand and Dodds in the 4.

The forward striking line-up is proving to be something of a frustrating combination for the Imps to crack this season. Forrester has been out of form since October 2007, Torpey is favoured by Schofield but not by anyone else, Stallard never lasts a full game anymore and Ben Wright and Ollie Ryan both continue to do their great impression of "the forgotten man". It's a case of picking any 2 from those 5, or even alternatively bring Dodds up front and push another midfielder in.

However, City's mini-crisis is nothing compared to that of Grimsby, with John Fenty revealing a cash crisis that sees the Mariners needing over £200,000 in 2 months to survive. Fenty revealed that Grimsby will now have to leave Blundell Park, thankfully they gained planning permission on January 25th to build a new stadium in the Great Coates area.

It just rounds off what has been a miserable opening few weeks for the Mariners, failing to win a single game so far in the League. Their 3 points so far have come from 3 draws and they need to seriously improve if they are to survive this season. It doesn't get any easier after they face City, with games against Hereford, Chester and Peterborough coming in quick succession.

Touching wood, I can't see the Imps losing this game because of what Grimsby fans have been telling me. Whether we win or not is a completely different matter.

PREDICTION - 1-1

RANDOM GAME FACTS

Grimsby's squad contains just one ex-Imp, midfielder Ciaran Toner. Compare that to City who have 2 ex-Mariners (Gary Croft and Jamie Forrester).

This will be the 3rd season in 4 that City have gone into the game at Sincil Bank in a higher league position than the Mariners. The only exception being the 2005/6 in which Grimsby were challenging for the title, whereas City were barely challenging for the Playoffs.

In the 9 meetings in Football League competitions since they were relegation to this division, only once has the team to score first not won (Playoff 2nd Leg)

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