To put it bluntly, the Imps have been a bit rubbish this season. Other than a brief good spell in October, which can best be described as an uncharacteristic blip, the Imps have been shockingly poor all season long and it finally caught up to us on Tuesday night when a Kettering side who actually showed City's regular bunch of half-arsed "performers" how to care, put the Imps out of the cup.

In all honesty, I can count the amount of times that the Imps have played well this season on one hand and still end up wasting fingers. If it wasn't for Luton and Bournemouth still be on negative points then I would still be nervous about relegation, because this side doesn't look capable of winning more than one game a month at the moment.

City don't have any new injury worries ahead of Saturday so Jackson has a full squad to pick from. Unfortunately that means that the same wasters will probably take to the field of play. Rob Burch, one of the few players to have actually impressed me this season, will more than likely start in goal with the fragile defence of Green, Kovacs, Hone and Beevers in front of him.

The midfield could certainly be interesting as none of them are particularly playing well. However, let's face it, Jackson is a bit stubborn when it comes to playing players who are consistantly under-performing, so based on that it will be Oakes, Kerr and Frecklington in midfield with N'Guessan and LJL supporting the striker.

Then we get onto the striker. Where do we start here? Patulea's injured, Ben Wright can't seemingly get a shot in on target, Kevin Gall is just pure toss and David Graham might as well bring out a book called "My Favourite Football League Benches." Even though I don't like him on a personal level, I'd even be prepared to give Mullarkey a go simply because he has only played about 20 minutes this season and did more in that 20 minutes than some of the aforementioned have done all season.

It truly is an awful position to be in, which awful striker do we play with next? That's not a position that Shrewsbury are in as they have the best strike force in the division. Grant Holt flopped at Forest but has found his feet in Shrewsbury, and we all remember Richard Walker from the Playoffs against Bristol Rovers.

Infact, I think I'd be prepared to say that I think Shrewsbury are the best side in the division at the moment. They've always been a hard side to beat but never really had a consistant goalscorer since Luke Rodger's left. They have also been boosted by signing Matt Gilks from Blackpool. He is yet another experienced member of the squad.

Ben Herd and Mike Jackson are both suspended for a Shrewsbury side that already won 7-0 twice this season. Graham Coughlan returns from injury but it could be too early for a returning Ben Davies.

PREDICTION - I really can't see City getting anything out of this to be honest. Shrewsbury are the best side in the division, and we, for a lack of better words, are a bit toss. City 1 Shrewsbury 4

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