By Nathan Jackson
December 24 2006

Boxing day will see the Imps take on local rivals, Boston and will aim to avoid a 5th home draw in a row against the Pilgrims. Since coming into the league in 2002/3, the Pilgrims have left Sincil Bank every year with a point but could this be the last chance City have to beat their neighbours?

2 local derbies in the space of 7 days produced 2 vital wins and now it's time to get a result that the that City have never managed in the football league. Since coming into the Football League, all 4 games between the Imps and the Pilgrims at Sincil Bank have ended in stalement and overall, Boston have the advantage at the minute, winning 3 of the games at York Street compared to the Imps to and with Boston struggling against the drop, this could very well be the last chance City have to beat the Pilgrims at home and to level "the score".

The win over Peterborough was a big one as far as Imps fans were concerned and was the perfect pre-Christmas result, and that followed on from an excellent result against Grimsby Town. This is already one of the best first halves of a season that City have ever had (possibly the best, I haven't done any research into it) and now we have a great chance to end the calender year with 50 points.

There aren't many Boston fans expected at the match, a point proven by that the Pilgrim's officials told the Imps not to bother making it all ticket for away fans and thus, anyone can just turn up and get into the Boston end.....a possible recipe for disaster if I ever saw one. 

After putting in a confident performance against Peterborough, Schofield and Deehan will have trouble selecting the team and do they want to drop a team that was rarely troubled by the Posh? If there are any changes, it is likely to see either Stallard of Gritton dropped from what was a 3 man attack where neither had a shot or even set up another chance for another player. If I had to guess, I'd say it'll be Stallard because he still appears to be struggling to shrug off that operation he had recently. The dropped striker would more than likely be replaced by Frecklington who is due to return from suspension.

Hopefully, Jeff Hughes will also replace Shane Nicholson who managed to get through another match without doing anything. I won't hold my breath though.

Who I think will start (Right to left)

Marriott

Eaden    Moses    Brown    Hughes

Beevers    Kerr  Frecklington  Amoo

Forrester   Gritton

	Grimsby Town			L 2-3
	Peterborough United			L 0-1
	Darlington			W 4-1
	Shrewsbury Town			L 0-5
	Brighton & Hove Albion		LC	L 0-1
	Milton Keynes Dons			L 0-1
	Hartlepool United			L 1-2
	Stockport County			W 2-1
	Barnet			D 3-3
	Accrington Stanley			L 1-2
	Rochdale			L 0-3
	Lincoln City			W 1-0
	Swindon Town			D 1-1
	Bristol Rovers			L 0-1
	Mansfield Town			D 1-1
	Brighton & Hove Albion		JP	L 0-2
	Bury			L 1-2
	Wycombe Wanderers			L 0-1
	Notts. County			D 3-3
	Bournemouth		FA	L 0-4
	Macclesfield Town			W 3-2
	Hereford United			D 1-1
	Chester City			L 1-3
	Wrexham			W 4-0
	Torquay United			W 1-0
	Walsall			D 1-1

2004/5 : Kidderminster Harriers 5th Year in the Football League RELEGATED

2005/6 : Rushden and Diamonds 5th Year in the Football League RELEGATED

2006/7 : Boston United's 5th Year in the Football League

As you can tell by that, Boston don't have recent history on their sides and if was for a recent decent run, they'd be joint bottom with Macclesfield. It's been a generally miserable season for the Pilgrim's so far, both on and off the field. Their home record is average, winning, drawing and losing 4 times each, yet again though, it's their away record that is letting them down, losing 7 out of the 11 away games so far. In the past, you always got the feeling that if Boston could sort out their away form then they'd challenge for the playoffs each yesterday but since they came into the football league, their home form has been very respectable indeed.

Boston don't have a bad side in all fairness and their strike force has a very familiar look to it. 25% of their strikers used to play for City whereas the other 75% came exceptionally close to joining the Imps at some point in recent years. Experienced defensive duo, Paul Ellender and Mark Greaves are one of the reasons Boston don't often get a thrashing.

Arguably the Pilgrim's best player, is Dany N'Guessan who will be playing his penultimate game for the Pilgrims as he will return to his parent club, Glasgow Rangers in January.