The joys of travelling north west


By Nathan Jackson
April 7 2008

Lincoln City travel to Chester City this Saturday hoping to increase an impressive run of results in that area of the country. A completely different story to last season when the Imps bare gained a point in the same area of the country, including a rather undeserved 4-1 mauling at Chester themselves.

On December 4th the Imps won 3-1 at Stockport County. It was City's first win in the north west area of the country since a 3-2 win at the same ground in February 2006. The results in the north west between those two wins is very depressing reading.

LINCOLN'S RESULTS IN THE NORTH WEST BETWEEN 3/2/06 AND 4/12/07

18th Feb 2006

Macclesfield

1-1

Lincoln City

DRAW

28th March 2006

Carlisle

1-0

Lincoln City

DEFEAT

4th November 2006

Stockport

2-0

Lincoln City

DEFEAT

11th November 2006

Port Vale

2-1

Lincoln City

DEFEAT

25th November 2006

Wrexham

2-1

Lincoln City

DEFEAT

10th December 2006

Chester

4-1

Lincoln City

DEFEAT

22nd January 2007

Bury

2-2

Lincoln City

DRAW

24th February 2007

Accrington

2-2

Lincoln City

DRAW

31st March 2007

Rochdale

2-0

Lincoln City

DEFEAT

29th September 2007

Wrexham

1-0

Lincoln City

DEFEAT

2nd October 2007

Bury

1-1

Lincoln City

DRAW

So in 11 games we picked up just 4 points, a truly shocking record. However, since the 1-1 draw at Bury we haven't lost in the north-west area of the country. The next game in that area was the aforementioned game at Stockport and just over a month later saw a 2-0 win at Rochdale. That was followed just over another month later by a rare win at Macclesfield Town's Moss Rose.

City's last trip up to the north west area of the country was a 3-0 win at Accrington Stanley that came in the middle of a 5 match winning run.

City also have another game in that area of the country as they travel up to Morecambe two weeks after the Chester game. City will certainly be up for winning both games as both sides came to Sincil Bank this season and were second best for the whole game, and yet managed to leave with 4 points between them.

A win at Chester could also see the Imps finally secure League football next season. It would take a major collapse for City to be relegated now but a win on Saturday with Mansfield and Wrexham both failing to win both their games this weekwould guarantee us another season in League 2.