By Nathan Jackson
October 14 2003

City face the unknown tonight in the 1st round of the LDV. The Imps have never played Telford in a competitive game but that will change tonight where it is expected that the team will be mostly full of reserves. Tonight will see a rarity, a game where the Imps have never played the opponents in a competitive game. Telford United are the visitors in the 1st round of the LDV Vans Trophy.

Telford were infact the lowest placed team to qualify for the tournament after coming close to relegation from the conference last season. However, this season is going well for them and they currently sit midtable in the Conference.

The only connections between the 2 sides currently are Grant Brown and Matt Bloomer. Brown played for the Bucks last season before moving onto Alfreton Town during the summer. Matt Bloomer, part of the current Imps squad, spent the majority of the first half of last season on loan to Telford from Hull.

City's only recent experiences against non-league teams in the competition was against Morecambe in the 2000/1 season where the Imps won 3-2. The Imps had gone 1-0 up but quickly found out themselves 2-1 down. However, 2 more goals from Lee Thorpe to give him his hatrick secured a 3rd round place. City went onto the Northern Final that year and played every single round at home. However, our history in the competition is not very good recently. Two seasons ago, the Imps went down 3-1 at Scunthorpe in the 1st round. Last season, the first round game against York was one of the better games last season. City lead 1-0 going into half time but were 2-1 down 10 minutes after half time. City equalised in the 80th minute from Futcher but less than a minute later, Jon Parkin put the visitors back in front. In the 93rd minute, City scored twice in 33 seconds to send them through to the 2nd round. City went out 2-1 to Shrewsbury in the 2nd round after the only goal in Adam Buckley's City career but Luke Rodgers equalised within 3 minutes. The game went into extra time but Shrewsbury scored after 4 minutes. They made the Northern Final but lost 1-0 on aggregate to Carlisle.

Unfortunatly there is not much of a preview for this game as there isn't much information available about Telford, however, this is there debut season in the competition.

City will more than likely field a mix of reserves and first teamers. Adam Kerley and Chris Davies are both expected to make their first team debuts tonight and I personally am looking forward to seeing them play.

Prediciton - Given City's recent form and the fact we're a league above Telford, I would normally say we'd easily win but I get a feeling this will be like the Morecambe game and it'll be 3-3 after full time but the Imps will provail 5-3 in the new silver goal format for the competition.