By theimps.tk
August 7 2009

It's been a fair old while since the last football season ended, since then the summer has been a bit bland with no international tournaments on. In our first preview of the season we look at our home game against a team who we usually beat at home, Barnet.  

96 days, 22 hours and 10 minutes. 3 months, 4 days, 22 hours and 10 minutes, 139,570 minutes, 8,374,000 seconds, whatever you look it, tomorrow's kick off has been a long time coming since the final ball was kicked against Aldershot last season. The Imps have gone through a lot of changes in the pre-season with Dany N'Guessan, Lee Frecklington, Adrian Patulea, Geoff Horsfield, Ben Wright, Lee Beevers and several others leaving through various methods. It is an uncertain time for the Imps in terms of goals.

Our attack looks interesting to say the least as we have struggled to score during pre-season, only really hitting any kind of form in front of net against a team three divisions below us, a bit worrying but there we go. However, the defence has looked excellent through pre-season and towards the back end of last season, Moses Swaibu managing to stake a successful claim for a first team place ahead of Danny Hone, only time will tell if that pays off.

Other than that it's been a quiet summer, season ticket sales were steady but for myself it was a case of not knowing whether I was going to get one, an uncertain and relatively unwelcome feeling, even though it would have been my choice. I feel a bit lost when thinking about the club's future. I have little faith in Peter Jackson's Lincoln, even more so than I did when Schofield is in charge, and I know a lot of fans who feel the same, some of whom have decided not to renew their season ticket simply because of Jackson.

It's been a long time since a manager at Sincil Bank has split opinion as much as Jackson, you only have to look at the current poll on the right hand side of the screen to see that there is a very wide mix of opinions about the security of Jackson's job with 18.18% thinking there's no chance he will leave this season, whereas 16.36% think it's guaranteed he will. Whatever way you look at it, it's now time for Jackson to start producing.

He had the excuse in his first season of having the terrible start of Schofield's doing, but in his first full season he only managed to gain a single point more than the season that had the bad start, not really progression. Jackson is believe to be under pressure to get the Playoffs at a minimum, something which I doubt he is capable of.

Injury news from Sincil Bank is pretty much the same. Paul Green, Scott Kerr and Lenell John-Lewis are all guaranteed to be out, but other than that it's a pretty much injury free squad with the only real debating point being who starts up front. Fagan has been the form man during pre-season and linked up well with Connor, but many question how patient Howe will be if he has to sit on the bench. I personally think it will be Fagan and Howe up front, with Connor coming on midway through the second half.

Other than that it's pretty predictable. Burch will start in goal with Heath, Kovacs, Swaibu and Hughton in front of him, Hughton making his Football League debut. The midfield is likely to be four players and if that is the case, it will more than likely be Richard Butcher, Jamie Clarke, Aaron Brown will all start, with Shane Clarke being the likely replacement for Kerr.

Barnet themselves hope for a better season than they usually have but have an awful record at Sincil Bank, losing on their last five visits. That cause will not be helped by the fact that John O'Flynn is likely to miss out due to a torn muscle in his foot. Breen and Devera are also likely absentees. They will still be with their most dangerous player though, Albert Adomah aiming to destroy City again.

The Bees are likely to have another also-ran style season, not bad enough for relegation but not good enough to even slightly think of challenging for a place in the top half. Under Ian Hendon they have won, drawn and lost exactly 33.33% of all games, meaning mediocrity reigns supreme. He has banned talk of the "P" word, a bit arrogant considering his team barely escaped relegation last term.

The days of summer are over, now football is back

Discussion started by theimps.tk (IP Logged), 07/08/2009 16:06

theimps.tk
07/08/2009 16:06

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davidimp
07/08/2009 16:14

What summer????????????

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cherryexile
07/08/2009 17:20

Summer is the time for Cricket.

Since the Test will be over by Sunday at this rate and they have already cut the corn in the field behind my house it looks the football season has arrived just in time.

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Red Imp
07/08/2009 17:54

Did you get an ST in the end Nathan?

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