City to entertain Derby County

By Nathan Jackson
April 9 2008

Lincoln City and Derby County will meet each other in the pre-season after arranging a friendly to be played on July 26th at Sincil Bank. It is the first friendly to be arranged so far and it'll be the second year in a row that City will face team that has just been relegated from the Premiership.

The Imps and the Rams last met in August 2004 in the Carling Cup when the Imps won 3-1. Derby took the lead through a Idiakez free kick. It looked to be heading for a win for the visitors before a strange incident with just over 10 minutes to go. A cross was sent into the box and Idiakez moved his arm from his side up to his chest and then elbowed the ball, Gary Taylor-Fletcher scored the resulting free kick before Yeo gave the Imps the lead just two minutes later.

Jamie McCombe scored his first goal for the Imps to secure a 3-1 victory. City went out by the same scoreline in the next round at Birmingham City.

The friendly will be played on Saturday July 26th and will have a 3pm kick off. It is the first friendly to be arranged so far and is expected to be one of about ten. The annual friendly with Lincoln United is potentially in doubt after they were relegated on Tuesday night. It has been rumoured that they would go out of business if they got relegated and so City might miss out on a trip to Ashby Avenue.

To view the match report from the 3-1 victory over Derby, click here.