By Nathan Jackson
October 21 2010

Lincoln City's first home game under the charge of Steve Tilson will see City come up against Stockport County. There has been a new wave of optimism felt around Sincil Bank since both the departure of Chris Sutton and the arrival of Steve Tilson.

In what has been an up and down decade since the turn of the century, there have been a general mixture of good and bad feelings around this club, but the majority of the last four years have seen on a downer. Infact, I am writing this report four years to the day since a 7-1 win against Rochdale at home, a game which some say we haven't been the same since. Since then, John Schofield, Grant Brown, Peter Jackson, Iffy Onuora, Simon Clark, Chris Sutton and Scott Lindsey have all been in charge of the team at one point or another, but other than the odd spell here and there, you'd struggle to find winning runs, or even just a decent unbeaten run of more than 6/7 games. Enter Steve Tilson.

I must admit that I haven't felt optimism like this for some time. I'll grant you, it's guarded optimism based on what has happened in the past, but by returning to this level after spending the last five calendar years shows that he's not up his own arse, something which can't be said for some of those in the aforementioned list, not mentioning any *coughs*Chris Sutton*coughs* names.

Tilson's first game comes against a very interesting opposition. Stockport hadn't lost at Sincil Bank since September 2005, but if you're a team that allows Lenell John-Lewis to score past you, you know there's problems....especially as it was a good goal.

As it stands, the Imps don't have any new players, although the BBC suggests we could see a new Imp on Friday.

It will certainly be interesting to see who Tilson picks given that he has seen two very different City performances over the past two weeks. With no suspenions to be served or being served, as well as no fresh injury worries, the Imps will have a full squad, with the exception of Delroy Facey, whom is still away on international duty.

Other than Facey, it is likely Tilson will use the same starting line-up that beat Macclesfield Town weeks ago.

THE LIKELY CITY STARTING XI
	Didn't cover himself in glory at Shrewsbury, conceding the only two realistic chances on target that the hosts had, however, he still has a reasonable goals against column and let's face it, there's no actual competition at this club.
	Arguably the best outfield player over the last few weeks scored a beauty in his last home game. He has now reverted to his usual left back position and has done a fine job.
	Watts' reputation as a decent defender is taking a bit of a battering at the moment and Shrewsbury did nothing to improve the reputation. Will more than likely keep his first team place, simply due to the lack of any serious challengers to his position.
	If there is one player who is likely to be worried about a new player coming then it will more than likely be Swaibu. Tilson is believed to be looking at a defender, with Adam Barrett a reported target, and given that Swaibu has good games on a very limited basis
	After being one of the key players of last season, Hughton has been largely anonymous for the majority of the season and as much as I like him, if he continues to be this anonymous then he could easily find himself out of the side.
	With Josh O'Keefe seemingly guaranteed to start, regardless of how badly he plays, the other position is likely to be competed for between Keltie and Kerr, and Keltie offers more all round as a player than Kerr does.
	It's Albert Jarrett, what more do you need to know?
	He's played for City 11 times and the Imps have only picked up 4 points when he's played. After those 11 games, the vast, vast majority of fans are still curious what he actually brings to the side and much like Swaibu, if there are wholesale changes coming up then O'Keefe looks one of the prime candidates for being replaced.
	Carayol is another one who hasn't performed in recent weeks and seems to be a completely different player to the one that started the season so well. Hopefully a new manager will do wonders for him.
	McCallum hasn't started a game for a long time and with Facey gone and Broughton still injured, he might finally get his deserved chance.   He had more shots in the first 20 seconds of coming on last Saturday than Hutchinson managed all game.
	When you have a striker that makes Rene Howe look good, and moans more than he did, you know you're not onto a winner.   He is certainly not winning fans with his lack of goals, poor performances and even worse attitude.   How this guy ever got Celtic to buy him is anyone's guess, it certainly wasn't based on footballing ability.

The teams haven't met since the 2007/8 season when both sides won their away games. The last meeting came at Sincil Bank when a relatively even encounter was settled by a 68th minute Poole effort. . The game at Edgeley Park that year was memorable as the performance summed up the optimism of the early Peter Jackson days. Ben Wright scored twice from two Owain Warlow crosses, Dickinson did pull one back before a rare Lenell John-Lewis goal. 

2006/7 saw City travel to Stockport in November with the Imps sitting atop League Two, however, it was a short stay as goals from Rose and Malcolm meant that City's stay at the top lasted just seven days, City haven't been top since. The game at Sincil Bank towards the end of the season ended 0-0.

2005/6 resulted in a City double. Two Gary Birch goals saw City easily win at Sincil Bank before an enthralling gmae at Edgeley Park in February. After a rather dull first half, debutant Martin Gritton opened the scoring from close range for the Imps early in the second half.....Briggs equalised for the hosts within a minute. Yeo restored City's lead in the 69th minute before Lee Frecklinton's first goal for the Imps made it 3-1. Dickinson pulled one back before Stockport controversially had a goal disallowed for offside. The game ended with City missing three golden opportunities, two of which were one on one situations and the other was an open goal for Steve Robinson, a shot that he hit well wide of the target.

Stockport had beaten City twice in 12 months at Sincil Bank in the Carling Cup in 2002/3 and 2003/4.

Stockport have one former Imp playing for them, Anthony Pulis (above, right) being on loan from Southampton. He was voted as the second worst players to represent City last season, only being beaten to the "accolade" by Khano Smith.

Other than him, Marvin Robinson, Anthony Elding, Ben Smith, Kevin Ellison, Aaron Lescott and Shane Nicholson have all represented both clubs over the last ten years.

Stockport fans will probably just be happy to have a football club after what happened to them last season. They were relegated by a long way last season and have come into this division with a slow start, even someone managing to keep fewer clean sheets than the Imps.

It took them until September 4th to win a game as they won 2-0 at Macclesfield, previous to them they had endured thrashings at home to Shrewsbury (4-0) and Preston (5-0). Since then they've hardly set the world alight, picking up nine points in seven games, although they have only lost twice in that time period.

Paul Simpson is no strange to the area having formerly managed nearby Rochdale, as well as beating nearby Bury in the Playoffs whilst in charge of Shrewsbury, but he had said on several occasions that this is his hardest job to date.

To be fair he has assembled a half decent squad, with Danny Swailes being one of the stand out names on the squad list. Barry Conlon is also well known to City fans after scoring for numerous clubs against the Imps and Robbie Williams was highly rated by many whilst on loan at a Blackpool squad that won the League One Playoffs in 2006/7.

Stockport do have some interesting fixtures coming up, facing Hereford and Morecambe in their next two games.

The new era begins at home to Stockport

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 21/10/2010 19:39

theimps.ka
21/10/2010 19:39

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