The next 4 games will control our season

By Nathan Jackson
January 28 2006

City 4 of the bottom 6 teams in the next few weeks and City need a good return to give a realistic chance of the playoffs. A run of 1 defeat in 12 means that City are on the verge of the playoff places and the Imps are hitting form going into a run of games where good results are expected.

All of City's opponents in the next the next 3 weeks are currently within the bottom 6 within the division and the Imps will be hoping for at least 9 points from the 4 games and City, who have only lost 7 games so far this season, will fancy their chances against 4 opponents who have lost 45 games between them in the league so far this season.

City's slim chances of the playoffs have improved in recent times with a run of just 1 defeat in the last 12 games, however, the fact that City have drawn 7 of those means that the Imps are still 4 points off the playoffs in what has been a very frustrating season for the Imps both on and off the field but now City have a great chance to try and get in the playoff pack.

In this small collection of games, we start with Stockport, a team who amassed just 4 wins all season and were easily the worst side that have come to Sincil Bank this season. They used the excuse that several of their top players were injured or suspended, however, the Imps had the same situation and came out of a 1 sided contest as comfortable 2-0 winners.

Then we have the visit of Torquay, I'll be honest, I have personally never seen us beat Torquay and despite one great memory from a Torquay game at the end of 2002/3, the games against the Gulls often go the way of the south coast team. In this seasons game, City took the lead early on via Gareth McAuley's header but Torquay, who were poor quickly turned the game around and the less said about the Imps' disipline in this game, the better. This is the one game out of the 4 that not many will be expecting a result from.

2 weeks ago, City confidently beat Barnet at Sincil Bank and on Valentines Day, City will be aiming for the double over the Londoners, however, City have never actually won at Barnet, however, if City play like they did in the fixture at Sincil Bank then not only should the Imps win, it should be quite a lopsided scoreline.

Finally, we get to Macclesfield who are turning into Swansea City. When Swansea City were in this division, they were the biggest one man team that you'd ever seen and it was no surprise that Swansea's defeats record was heavy without Trundle in the side and it's the same for Macclesfield and Parkin. It says it all about Macclesfield that before Jon Parkin joined then, City had won the previous 5 games against the Silkmen but whilst he was with them, City only had 2 wins in the 5 against Macclesfield. Now Parkin has left the Silkmen and without that one-man element of the one-man team, Macclesfield are a very poor side and their form without Parkin in the squad shows why they deserved to be where they are in the table.

One vital part of this mini-run of games is the fact there are a lot of teams around the Imps that are playing each other and interestingly enough, City's final game in February is the visit of Notts County, who themselves are currently keeping up with the playoff pack and have a great run of results against the Imps.