By Nathan Jackson
September 26 2005

Following the match at Torquay, several fringe players will be playing against Stockport including Simon Raynor. City had 3 players sent off in the game at Torquay and it will give some players an oppurtunity to stake their claim for a first team place against a team who've only won once so far.

Some of you may have noticed that I didn't post a reaction to the Torquay game. This was because I didn't want to say stuff that I might regret at a later date. It was just typical Lincoln City though, sit on a 1-0 lead and hope for the best. But that's all in the past now but we need to start picking up wins very soon or risk being involved in a relegation battle after only 2 wins from the opening 10 games, both at home, infact, if you add together the current records of ourselves and our next opponents, you'd have 3 wins from 20 games, not very promising from either side.

Well, this could very well be interesting. Robinson is still injured, McCombe is nursing a broken toe and to top it all off, Marriott, Morgan and Beevers are all banned. There are also rumours that Raynor (the back up goalkeeper) is in Canada visiting family, however, these rumours are unlikely to be true. This could be the last chance the Canadian has to impress Keith and will join one of several players who will be trying to prove a point to Keith.

Who I think will start (Right to left)

Raynor

Bloomer   Brown    McAuley   Mayo

Cryan     Kerr     Keates

Birch Molango Green

 

Stockport were relegated from League 1 during the summer in a season that saw them win just 6 games all season. This season hasn't started very well either, picking up just one win, that coming from their trip to Grimsby a few weeks ago that produced a fine 3-1 victory. They started the campaign with a respectable draw at home to Mansfield before crashing 2-0 at Darlington. A 2-2 draw at Boston was followed but a 1-1 draw at home to Notts County. 1-1 draws followed at Oxford and at home to Peterborough before that 3-1 win in Cleethorpes. This was followed by an exciting 3-3 draw at home to Wycombe. However, this was followed by a 3-2 defeat at Rushden and Diamonds before a 0-0 draw with local rivals Chester on Saturday.

The only recent meetings between the 2 sides came in the Carling Cup when they were drawn to face each other in the first round 2 years in a row. The first game came in 2002/3 and Carlton Palmer headed the visitors into the lead before a lovely chip from Luke Beckett gave the men from Edgley Road a 2-0 advantage. However, Adie Mike made it 2-1 shortly afterwards with a low drive. City had the ball in the net again minutes later but it was ruled out for offside. Rob Clare made it 3-1 to round off the scoring.

In 2003/4, it was a considerably more even game which City should have realistically won but couldn't find the finishing touch in a game they had controlled. The inability to finish was punished just 2 minutes before full time when a goal mouth scramble saw Stuart Barlow pop up and send Stockport through to the second round.