By theimps.tk
January 12 2009

Following on from recent criticism about supposedly only ever writing negative articles, I now bring you 16 reasons for the fans to remain optimistic to counter last week's article stating 16 reasons why we wouldn't make the Playoffs. Included are some youngsters, a few new signings and something that I never imagined I'd say about City's defence again this time last year.

1) Danny Hone has been fantastic since coming into the first team. I think Saturday was the first time I've not been impressed by him, but other than that it's all looking good for the youngster who has been linked with high profile moves away from Sincil Bank. Calm, cool and collected, the defender certainly has a bright future in the game and is easily our most consistent player so far this season.

2) Hone is part of a defence which is proving generally stubborn compared to last season. City conceded 90 goals in 50 games last term, but with 28 games gone so far during the current term we've conceded 33 goals. This upturn in defensive form has yet to see us conceded four (or more) goals, not bad considering that had already happened six times by this time last season.

3) Clean sheets are coming on a more regular basis. We only failed to keep the opposition out of the net six times last season, whereas we've already managed it seven times this season. Granted, we're not scoring on a regular basis but as Keith always said "if the opposition don't score then you're guaranteed to pick up points!"

4) We may have lost more games than we've won this season, but the difference is that we haven't lost more than half our games overall, unlike last season when we lost 27 of the 50 games we played.

5) The one player who is always being called inconsistent, Dany N'Guessan, is finally starting to show the talent he has on a regular basis. He was by far our best player against Bradford and Luton, also playing reasonably well against Brentford. Obviously we need him to do this over a longer term, but it's a start.

6) Jackson seems to have realised that playing a striker who has only had two shots in his five first team games isn't going to work.

7) Unlike last January, Jackson has certainly added talent to our squad this transfer window. Last term we had to put up with Lee Ridley and Adam Smith doing sweet f/a for the team, now we have Elding and Horsfield. Both made their debut against Brentford and provided the improvement that the squad needed. We looked dangerous going forward.

8) Although we we've won just once in twelve games against the teams currently above us, we're not losing many games against them. In recent weeks we've gotten points out of Shrewsbury, Bradford and Brentford, all challengers for the automatic promotion places. You could argue that we looked as likely to win those games as we did to lose, but a draw's not too bad against those teams.

9) The game against Accrington certainly shows that we have a bit of luck on our side. We were god awful that game and should have been four down at half time, but thanks to a bit of luck we weren't, and we went on to win 5-1. Then we get onto an open goal missed by Brentford the other day, we would have gone 3-1 down and almost certainly game over, but they missed and we went on to equalise.

10) I've been impressed with Burch. He seems a bit, erm, unrealiable in terms of positioning for long range shots, but overall he produces some fine saves. Comparing him to Marriott at this same stage last season shows you that he's conceded fewer goals in more games, hasn't conceded more than three goals and has won us far more points than he's lost us. We won't mention the Dagenham game.

11) LJL has been dropped.

12) Thinking about it, seven points isn't that big of a gap. Granted, every single team (with the exception of Bury) above us has games in hand, but there's no guarantees that they'll get anything from those games. Eventually all those teams above us will have to play each other and points will be dropped. There are seven teams within four points of each other, if we can get near them then we could easily get into and above the bunch.

13) I'll admit that there's not too many times I could say we've performed tremendously well this season. Infact, I think the Chesterfield game is the only one that I've seen where we have completely dominated, but that shows we are perfectly capable of doing it against a team who really should be higher up in the table.

14) We have shown in brief glimpses that we can easily put together long unbeaten runs, such as the one in September/October this season. Another run like that should (the key word in this sentence) put us in the pack.

15) We have a LOT of winnable games coming up. Until the end of February we realistically should look at picking up maximum points from our next three home games (Chester, Bournemouth and Macc), as well as points at Chesterfield, Port Vale and Morecambe. The only games that worry me are the home games against Darlo and Rotherham (because we never beat either) and the trip to Gillingham in two weeks.

16) We've shown in the past that nothing is impossible. We came from a similar position numerous times under Keith, can we do the same under Jackson?

16 reasons to remain optimistic

Discussion started by theimps.tk (IP Logged), 12/01/2009 18:25

theimps.tk
12/01/2009 18:25

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davidimp
12/01/2009 19:22

Much better Nathan
Have to say I agree with pretty much all you said there.
This is a very average divsion this year as it was 05/06.
If we can find 13 wins and a few draws from the 22 left you never know. We may even need less than 70 pts as everybody seems capable of beating everybody else.
UTI

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sammyimp
12/01/2009 20:01

Woohoo go Nathan!!!!

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Dave Imp
12/01/2009 20:24

I agree with most of that although first thing you say we have luck on our side eg. brentford miss at 2 1 that's true but how many times have we missed awful chances which would probably have won the game eg. exeter away when 1 nil lennell missed a near open goal then dng a 1 on 1 ended up losing, then at bradford frecko missed 2 easy chances, those misses cost 5 pts so i think it evens itself out. Secondly Jackson has strenthened the team this january to get into the play offs last year it was to stay in the league which explains the quality difference. Also i have to say although i was a massive fan of Marriott to get someone as good as Burch who has certainly convinced nearly everyone that losing Marriott maybe wasn't that bad. Nice to see something positive Nath!

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f1llo
13/01/2009 15:52

11) LJL has been dropped. LMAO

Doesn't it feel better writing articles with positivism.

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mrlincolncity
13/01/2009 17:06

excellent nathan!
thats more like it

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Aryan_imp
13/01/2009 18:26

I think somewhere between the two is a more rational view of looking at things!



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Red Imp
13/01/2009 19:26

Better! Think success, achieve success!

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