It's not over until the fat lady sings
By Nathan Jackson
April 22 2004
Although the Imps would have to win all 3 remaining games and hope Hudds lose all theirs with Torquay dropping point, the Imps still harbour hopes of automatic promotion and will have a stern test against inconsistant Darlington.
INTRODUCTION
Tuesday wasn't a good day for the Imps as Huddersfield extended their lead over the IMps to 6 points with 3 to play. For the Imps to achieve automatic, firstly, we would have to hope we win at least 2 of our games and hope Huddersfield lose all 3 considering our superior goal difference over the terriers. However, we would also require Torquay not to gain more than 4 points as they are only slightly behind the Imps on goal difference but a big win for them could easily change that.
The Imps play their penultimate home game on Saturday against a Darlington team who are very inconsistant. When Dave Hodgson took over, they were in the relegation zone but a few months later, they were looking for a highly respectable mid-table finish, however, inconsistancy has cost them and they are being sucked back into the relegation battle but it is unlikely they will go down due to being 6 points ahead of York and 8 ahead of Carlisle and to honest, I can't see either of those teams catching Darlington, let alone over taking them.
IMPS TEAM NEWS
The Imps will more than likely have to do with influential due, Kevin Ellison and Paul Morgan who both had to be substituted last week against Carlisle due to injury. With Imps pretty assured of a playoff finish, maybe Keith will rest these 2 until the playoffs but that would be risky as the Imps can still possibly finish as low as 9th.
DARLINGTON'S FORM
Darlington's form is inconsistant and their last 8 games have produced 3 wins, 2 draws and 3 defeats and their recent form on the road, is average winning 1, drawing and losing twice. Darlington could still finish bottom although unlikely and will be glad to see the back of another poor season.
However, whether they emerge for next season is another matter, since George Reynolds quit as chairman, they have been in financial difficulties and may have to return to their Feethams ground. A charity game was arranged for Sunday but has now been cancelled due to poor ticket sales. More information on their crisis can be found at Sport Network's Division 3 page.
AGAINST DARLINGTON
To say we don't usually beat Darlington would be a tiny bit of an understatement. The Imps haven't beaten Darlington since the 1-0 win in 1999. Since then, all but 2 results have been draws which means the most likely outcome for Saturday's game will mean the Imps possibly slipping to 6th.
LAST 5 RESULTS AGAINST DARLINGTON
DARLINGTON 0 CITY 0
CITY 1 DARLINGTON 1
DARLINGTON 0 CITY 0
DARLINGTON 2 CITY 1
CITY 1 DARLINGTON 1
