By Nathan Jackson
November 16 2006

City will be hoping to rediscover their scoring form against Darlington after 3 near chanceless games on the road. Since our last home game, we've gone top, lost top spot and gone out of the FA Cup and it's been 3 performances that haven't inspired the confidence of the fans.

I never thought I'd be so pleased to have a home game because our last 3 performances, despite winning one of the games, haven't been those of a side that is 2nd in the division and we need to improve drastically in our next few games and where better to start than at home. Other than the 2 goals scored in the last 3 games, we didn't really create many opportunities which was inevitably our downfall and it seemed like a completely different side to that that had scored 12 goals in the previous 2 matches. Despite being at home, we shouldn't take anything for granted, especially against one of the most inconsistent sides in the lower leagues.

Ironically, they are the second team to come to Sincil Bank in a row that have a habit of taking something from Sincil Bank. Infact, you have to go back to 1999/2000 to find a result between the sides at Sincil Bank that wasn't a draw but this game has a extra bit of spice with Dave Penney, former manager of our local rivals Doncaster, now being the manager at Darlington. City do have a good record against him though and City were one of just 4 teams to not lose to his Doncaster side in 2003/4 and the only team not to concede a goal against them.

Anyone who is expecting another Rochdale scoreline should certainly re-evaluate things because if the last 3 games are to go by, we won't create too many chances but luckily, we've been taken our chances this season.

Although still being slightly injured, Paul Morgan should start on the bench but he will be one of the few bench regulars because Martin Gritton and Ollie Ryan are both struggling with injuries. Jeff Hughes has also voiced his concerns about possibly not making the game and if he remains injured, Colin Cryan will more than likely start the game again after costing the Imps' 2 goals last Saturday with 2 defensive errors, hopefully though he'll be on the right if he does play with Beevers moving to the left. Other than that, there should be no real surprises.

Who I think will start (Right to left)

Marriott

Cryan     Moses     Brown    Beevers

Amoo    Kerr  Frecklington   Mayo

Forrester   Stallard

Macclesfield Town		W 4-0
Accrington Stanley	W 2-0
Boston United	L 1-4
Swindon Town		L 1-2
Stoke City	LC	W 2-1
Walsall	L 0-1
Torquay United		D 1-1
Peterborough United	W 3-1
Bury		W 1-0
Bristol Rovers		D 1-1
Reading	LC	D 3-3
Reading won 4-2 on penalties
Shrewsbury Town	D 2-2
Mansfield Town	L 0-1
Grimsby Town		D 2-2
Rochdale		L 0-5
Hereford United	D 1-1
Barnet		W 2-0
Hartlepool United	D 0-0
Tranmere Rovers	JP	W 1-0
Chester City		W 1-0
Lewes	FA	W 4-1

To say Darlington are inconsistent is a bit of an understatement and this has upset some of their fans seemed to think that beating Macclesfield 4-0 on the opening day, meant that they were already guaranteed the title, inconsistency no more evident by the fact that just 7 days after that 4-0 win, they lost 4-1 at Boston, one of the Pilgrim's biggest ever football league wins. Their cup results also show a level of inconsistency with impressive performances against Stoke and Reading were following by poor displays against Walsall and Shrewsbury.

Darlington currently lay in that all too familiar 8th spot, the position they've finished in during the last 2 seasons, just finishing outside of the playoffs on both occasions but given their upturn in form recently, they could go on to make the playoffs for the first time since 1999/2000.