Will Iron finally break their duck of the Imps

By Nathan Jackson
August 19 2004

Scunny will be looking for their first win against City in 9 attempts this Saturday and if City don't "pull their fingers out" then that really can happen but knowing City, we'll play out of our skins and win by 3 goals or something stupid.

INTRODUCTION

After last Saturday's diabolical display against Rushden, all the Imps fans will be demanding a better performance from the players as we travel to a team where City have an excellent recent record over. Scunthorpe however, have started the season excellent and will really fancy their chances to finally beat the Imps for the first time in 9 league/playoff attempts.

TEAM NEWS FOR THE IMPS

The Imps will almost certainly be without captain Paul Morgan who was stretchered off last week and this could very well prove doubtful as many see his injury at the end of last season, the reason City failed in their playoff attempt, this can be seen as being that we very rarely conceed 10 goals in 10 games but we conceeded 10 in just 4 games which is unheard of for Lincoln these days.

Jamie McCombe might finally be able to return after ages out. The tall defender could very well run out in front of the team that sold him to City in March. However, it is unlikely he will be back and City might turn to the 4-3-3 formation.

Expected City line-up (right to left)

Marriott

West Futcher Weaver Blackwood

Butcher Toner Gain

Fletcher Richardson Green

Scunthorpe United

After City defeated Scunthorpe in the playoffs at the end of the 2002/3 season, Scunny were hopeful they could repeat this and it looked like they would. After a bit of a dodgy start, Scunny soon found their feet and went on an excellent home run of only 2 losses in going into 2004. Those two loses coming against Lincoln and Boston. After City won at Scunny, they went on a massive 14 game unbeaten run which included impressive wins against Cambridge (4-0) and Huddersfield (6-2). However, soon things went a bit sour.

Alex Calvo Garcia got injured and subsequently announced he would be going back to Spain at the end of the season. A disastorous run of only 4 league wins in 2004 saw manager, Brian Laws lose his job only to get it back 3 weeks later. Scunny ended the season losing 4 of their last 5 and finishing 22nd, only a single point about relegated Carlisle in 23rd.

Scunny have made a bright start to the season. They have beat Rochdale and Cheltenham and got a creditable draw at Oxford. They currently seat an unfamiliar top of the table but can it last for a team reckoned by many to be relegation candidates? Surely another York couldn't happen, could it?

MOST RECENT RESULTS AGAINST SCUNTHORPE

City fans can hold their head up high, in the league, Scunny have only beaten the Imps once since 1996 and City have dominated recent results winning 6 out of the last 9 matches. Games against Scunny are usually really good and 2 recent results at Sincil Bank were viewed as 2 of the best games in Imps history. The first was a highly entertaining 3-2 win for City in the 2001-2 season which goals coming from Dave Cameron, Peter Gain and Lee Thorpe. Then was the Playoff Semi Final First Leg where City won 5-3 thanks to goals from Simon Weaver, Paul Mayo, Paul Smith and Simon Yeo (2)