By theimps.tk
April 19 2006

The Imps are just 90 minutes away from potentially being a vital 5 points clear of the crown of teams catching us up. City face Leyton Orient, a team who themselves could virtually guarantee themselves a place in League One if they win but neither side can afford to slip up this late in the season.

On Saturday, it will be 547 days since arguably the most exciting home game of last season as the Imps and Orient shared 7 goals between them at Sincil Bank with the visitors landing the odd goal to win an exciting game by a scoreline of 4-3. Gareth McAuley gave the Imps the lead early on before Lee Steele levelled in the 11^th minute. Within 2 minutes the Imps were in the lead again, this time through Simon Yeo but the teams went into half time even as Jabo Ibehre scored a goal with a good finish. Within minutes of the restart, McAuley had given City the lead against before a late double from Steele eventually handed Orient 3 points and gave the striker the match ball.

 

Just 47,167,800 seconds after the game ended, arguably the biggest game of the season for both sides will kick off. With Grimsby playing Cheltenham on Friday night, Orient could have one foot in League One if the Mariners lose and the O’s win against Imps. That set of results would mean that the E10 club would be 4 points clear of the Mariners with just 2 games left. However, the Imps can’t afford to lose this game that could potentially see the Imps cement 7^th place and be 5 points clear of 8^th with 2 to play.

 

Recently, a lot of clubs have caught up to the Imps and 4 clubs have a realistic chance of overtaking the Imps within the final 3 games of the season. Peterborough and Darlington could overtake the Imps this weekend whilst Shrewsbury and Bristol Rovers could move within a point if the Imps do lose to Orient.

 

Orient have the joint best away record in the division, claiming 38 points on the road from their 21 away games that is better than the Imps’ home record as City have claimed 36 points from their 21 home games. The only thing that works in the Imps favour is that Orient have a poor(ish) defensive record, conceding 27 goals on the road. They have kept just 4 clean sheets on their league travels but every time they’ve kept a clean sheet away from home, they have won with 1-0 wins at Darlington, Grimsby and Mansfield, aswell as a 2-0 win at Chester. They’ve also only lost 3 on the road, 4-2 at Wycombe, 1-0 at Rushden and 2-0 at Torquay but their other 4 wins on the road have come at Carlisle (3-2), Wrexham, Bury and Boston (all 2-1), Barnet (3-2) and Rochdale (4-2).

 

Whichever way you look at it, neither side can afford to lose and the only consolation for either side losing would be if all their rivals lost and if that happened, it would be the 3^rd Saturday in 4 that virtually everyone around the Imps have lost but unlike in the previous 3 seasons, if the Imps do lose, they have 2 winnable games to get back into the playoffs places. Interestingly enough, we could easily face Orient again in the playoffs.