Can City move back into the Playoff picture?

Lincoln City could move within a victory of the Playoffs if they beat Notts County on Saturday. The Imps won at Meadow Lane for the first time in 9 years last season, and now the Imps will be hoping to take advantage of confidence given after a 5-1 thrashing of Accrington, but let's not take anything for granted against a Notts team who will be desperate for a win.

If there's been one game that I've been looking forward to this season, it's our trip to Notts County's Meadow Lane. Less than two miles from my flat, it will take me less than thirty minutes to walk to the ground, but even if I still lived in Lincoln then it would still be the closest game to go to this season. County is now our official local derby, the nearest side to Sincil Bank in the nearest division to us. Does that make this our biggest game of the season? No.

It's a strange thing between City and County, it never really feels like a local derby. There are around 35 miles between the two grounds and yet there's very little hatred between the two sides. It's hard to put your finger on it. Maybe it's because County have historically been higher up the Football League structure than the Imps, both clubs have traditionally bigger rivals, or maybe it's just because there's a lack of caring between the two sides.

Lincoln will go into the game on the back of a stunning final 25 minutes against Accrington Stanley, a period that saw City score five and also hit the woodwork once or twice after Peter Jackson, after thirteen months in charge, finally made an impactful substitution and it could easily be the XI that finished the game against Accrington that take the field against County. However, I wonder if Jackson will fancy that the same impact could be made if we start with the same starting XI and waiting to see what happens.....

Based on that, I think that the starting line up will see Rob Burch in between the sticks with Green, Kovacs, Hone and Beevers in front of him. N'Guessan is due back from suspension but will Jackson take Brown out after an impressive performance, or will Jackson revert to his often-rubbish Frenchman....hello Dany. Dany will probably be joined by Kerr, Frecklington and former Magpie, Stefan Oakes. Oakes has often been rated as a player who only performs properly when facing former sides....could be interesting. LJL will also of course find himself misplacing passes and failing to break into a sweat on the right hand side of midfield.

The lone-striker, devoid of all help, is open for debate. Graham played well against Exeter but Jackson appears to have lost his patience with him already and with Wright and Patulea both scoring last week, it could be Graham's seemingly last few weeks as an Imp, a pity given that far worse players have been given far more failed chances to impressive (Dany and LJL for example).

The pressure is on the management at Notts County. After pre-season optimism about a potential Playoff campaign, the Magpies haven't even slightly performed to the standards their fans expect. Only four League wins sees them in 16^th place. If it wasn't for the three teams starting their seasons on negative points, County would only be six points above the drop zone. Fortunately for them, they are still 17 points above the drop zone at the moment

They go into the game with a few selection problems. Jamie Forrester is suspended and two other former Imps, Russell Hoult and Richard Butcher, are out injured for the hosts. Hoult will be replaced by Kevin Pilkington, who despite being an excellent keeper in his own right, hasn't been a regular for their first team for god knows how long.

They are aiming for just their third home win of the season, whereas the Imps are aiming for a fourth away win. City could go 11^th and within three points of the Playoffs with a victory, whereas Notts could go up to 13^th with a win.