By Nathan Jackson
November 29 2005

Lincoln City stiker, Gary Birch has told various sources that he is determined to beat Macclesfield and Chester. The Imps face two tricky ties against last year's playoff semi-finalists and one of the surprise packages of the season, but Gary Birch is determined to succeed.

Birch's goal on Saturday was his first for the Imps since his double against Stockport at the end of September and has reaffirmed Birch's position as top goalscorer at the club but although the striker is pleased to be scoring again, his primary objective is for the Imps to gain 6 points from 2 tricky home ties.

Speaking to theimps.tk whilst warming up on Saturday, Birch said "I haven't scored for a while which is a disappointment despite of my injury, as a striker, it's always nice to get amoungst the goals and the more I get will not only benefit myself, but more importantly, will hopefully help the club push furthur away from the relegation game and closer to where we feel we belong."

Birch joined the Imps' in the summer from Kidderminster Harriers along with Dean Keates and scored in both of his opening games and he has so far scored 6 league goals this season, 3 more than any other striker at the club.

"Barn Door" as he was apparantly nicknamed down at Kidderminster, today reaffirmed his targets to the Echo as he set about getting 6 points against 2 clubs with playoff potential.

we have to look to kick on because the Christmas period is coming up, which is always vital to a team's chances of promotion.

"We have Macclesfield and Chester, both are at Sincil Bank, and we want six points. I don't see any reason why we can't get them. If we play like we did at Northampton on Saturday, we are more than a match for anybody. The Cobblers have spent big on their squad and they are fancied to win promotion this season. Yet we should have taken all three points. Hopefully, we will have the confidence now to go on and lift ourselves up the table."

The Imps have a highlight difficult December as those face home ties with Macclesfield, Chester, Boston and Darlington, aswell as tricky away trips to Oxford and Grimsby. A month that the fans will hope produces at least 10 points and the month will determine where the Imps will be battling after Christmas. City could potentially be bottom if results in December don't go our way, however, if luck returns to our side then we could well be on the fringes, if not in the playoffs.

We've played 19 league games so far this season and only Cheltenham have really run all over us. Despite only losing 6 games, the Imps have only won 4 and this is easily the worst start to a season under Keith Alexander. Even in the 4 defeats not involving Cheltenham, we should have at least claimed a point out of all of them because Notts County were rubbish before a deflection just before half time changed the game. Peterborough were the only other team who presented even a slight challenege. Torquay were awful and had is not been for another deflection then we would have easily won that game and don't even get me started on Wycombe, they didn't deserve any points, let alone 3.

Imps boss, Keith Alexander has bemoaned his lack of luck when going forward and especially some of the "penalties that never were" that would have lmost certainly been given the opposition if it was at the other end. However, when January comes around, hopefully the Imps will be in a much better league position and any new players that Keith brings in, might push us into playoff contention.

Keith is also determined to set things right as he told the official website.

"My team were magnificent and we should have left Northampton with all three points, our game plan was perfect. We looked solid at the back, the midfield players competed well and, up front, we looked very lively. Having Dean Keates back in the team gives us something extra and it's nice for Birchy to get among the goals. He has been through a bit of a lean spell of late, but hopefully he will kick on from here and grab a few more. There was good backing from our supporters again, so it was disappointing to only get a point. But it has been one of those seasons."

City go into Saturday's match with Macclesfield having only won 2 of the last 15 matches. However, the game Silkmen is an ideal oppurtunity to get 3 points of the board as they are proving to be "one season wonders", however, anyone who thinks this will be an easy game, is far from the truth.