By Nathan Jackson
December 4 2009

Lincoln City couldn't really have asked for a better ground to go to in search a rare away win. 6 of the 9 teams who've visited Gresty Road in the League this season have gone away with a maximum haul, and Lincoln City desperately need that to become 7 in 10, but it won't be easy against a recovering Alex. It's been a long time since the Imps fans could say their club was good in the cups but rubbish in the League, usually it's rubbish in the cup and rubbish in the League, and it's such a pity that our cup form cannot translate into the League. Both our cup wins this season have been followed by failures to win at home, with the latest being Tuesday night's defeat to Port Vale.

The Imps go into the game against Crewe with an horrendous away record, losing seven of their nine away games, however, Crewe have lost six of their home games. An even more interesting fact is that neither side has come from behind to win this season, but the Imps hold the slight advantage with claiming a single point from going behind, whereas Crewe have none.

Chris Sutton has been quick to defend the shocking form of the Imps, telling the Echo "In fairness to myself, since I've been here I've always said we are looking over our shoulders and that's still the case." He continued ""We are in a relegation scrap, and you have to remember I was given the job for a reason and that's because the team were not doing well.

"We've inherited what we've got and we have to get on with it, but performance-wise we are showing signs of improvements and slowly we are getting there.

"The fitness levels are getting better, we all see the same game and we are doing all right, but we know we need wins."

With Grimsby facing a very tricky game against free-scoring Dagenham tomorrow, it is imperative that City take advantage and get something at Crewe. A repeat performance of the 5-1 hammering that City gave Crewe four years ago would be very welcome. That Crewe side was managed by Dario Gradi, and contained Adie Moses, a defender who joined the Imps not too long after that. That game was a rarity, not only was it a cup win, but even Peter Folkes and Danny Bacon made cameo appearances.

Many feel that Sutton doesn't really know his best starting line up, with only Rob Burch seemingly guaranteed his starting place in goal. Sutton has admitted that he expects to lose Burch when his contract expires, but Burch does seem to like it at Lincoln, so you never know.

Lichaj and Hughton (right) are virtually guaranteed to start at the back, but the middle two are very much up for debate. Baker hasn't set the world alight and could easily be replaced by Kovacs, but Kovacs only seems to put in good performance in the cups these days. The safest bet to start is Adam Watts.

The midfield is also anyone's guess. Sutton seems to have settled on Scott Kerr, although strangely it was the captain who made way for the ever-ineffective Pearce the other night. Shane Clarke seems to have been given attacking freedom since Sutton came in and now plays more of an attacking midfield role, rather than the defensive midfield role that Jackson played him in. Whether he starts instead of Chris Herd remains to be seen though. Gordon will probably start at left midfield.

Luckily, Sutton does seem to have clocked onto the reality that Khano Smith is a bit crap but who replaces him on the left wing is up to debate. It might even be Herd after he played there on Tuesday night, but it all depends on the small chance of Stefan Oakes actually being fit and ready for a change.

Then we get onto the misfiring front line. Here's a little stat for you, the last time one of the current strikers (depending on if you count Clarke as a striker or a midfielder, which is very open for debate) scored in the League was September 12^th, Chris Fagan against Bournemouth. That statistic is shocking and goes some way to explaining why Fagan was dropped the other night.

Jamie Clarke's injury on Tuesday night will more than likely rule him out, meaning that Fagan will probably start alongside Facey, the latter missing a number of sitters on Tuesday night. Gilmour could also be handed an unexpected start.

Dario Gradi has surprising declared Lincoln hard to be, that despite the Imps already losing more than they've won so far this season. He told Crewe's website "It's a decent standard in this League now, it's taken me by surprise a little. Teams like Burton Albion have come into this league and proved they are good enough and proved hard to beat. Lincoln fall into that similar category, they might be down there but we will have to work hard if we want to beat them."

However, despite this, he has clearly not been watching City very closely and declares the Imps are dangerous at set pieces.

It's all a big change around for Crewe. A few years ago they were a Championship club but had never really established themselves at that level. They were highly capable of pulling out a surprise, but could also get embarrased. They were on Sky against Sheffield United at Gresty Road several years back, finding themselves 3-0 down within the first 10 minutes.

2008/9 was a hard year for the club. They fought relegation all year and looked doomed to relegation until a four game winning run in February pulled them out of trouble for the time being. The wins quickly dried up again and a 4-3 defeat at Stockport put them back in the relegation zone, tied with Carlisle and Northampton on 46 points.

That meant that a good win would have confirmed another year of League One football for Gudjon Thordason's men. It was just a pity for them that they came up against a Leicester City, the Champions. The Foxes showed no mercy and condemned Crewe to the drop with a 3-0 win.

This season hasn't been much better and despite being midtable at the moment, they have been around the lower reaches most of the season. It started badly with a 2-1 defeat at home to Dagenham, but three wins on the trot against Grimsby, Darlington and Hereford saw a progressing into the Playoff places. However 8 defeats in 9 games plummeted them back down the table.

Dumped out of the FA Cup by York and a subsequent home defeat by Morecambe lead most to believe Crewe would struggle, but since then they have drawn one and won two, including away on Tuesday night at Chesterfield....although the hosts did miss to penalties.

Crewe's home record in shocking. Dagenham, Aldershot, Bury, Rotherham, Port Vale and Morecambe have all gone away from Gresty Road with a maximum haul.

Not many players have played for both clubs in recent years. Three came to Sincil Bank from Crewe, Adie Moses, Michael Connor and Anthony Elding. Other than Elding (who is currently on loan at Kettering), Crewe have no former Lincoln players in their squad.

Awful at home against atrocious away, it's Crewe vs Lincoln

Discussion started by theimps.tk (IP Logged), 04/12/2009 12:22

theimps.tk
04/12/2009 12:22

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