Playoffs start again with a visit from Grimsby

By theimps.tk
May 12 2006

Lincoln City could potentially be heading into their final home game in League 2 as Grimsby visit in time for the first leg. In a game that will be shown live on Sky, City will hope for another 5-0 victory and although that is unlucky, a victory of any kind is vital against good travellers.

The playoffs, are they a reason to celebrate or a reason to dread that you finished within the top 4-7.  In all honesty, the novelty of the playoffs has well and truly disappeared for Imps fans and if we had been playing Wycombe or Cheltenham, there wouldn't be a chance in hell of nearly all the tickets would have been sold. So what can we expect from this Saturday's midday kick off against arguably our deadliest rivals.

Just 7 short weeks previously, the Imps defeated the Mariners by a whopping 5-0 scoreline, however, the odds of that happening again are very very slim and anyone who fools themselves into thinking it will be, is having a laugh. The home legs have often decided the outcome of the semi finals. The last 2 years, the scoreline as Sincil Bank was followed by the draw meaning Huddersfield's 2-1 win over City and City's 1-0 win over Macclesfield were the games judged who went through and this game could easily be the same.

City unusually have no injury worries and everyone is near enough 100% fit. It would be surprising if Keith started with a different line-up that the one that started against Rochdale and one that has near enough been the team since the game against Grimsby at the end of the March. Although fit, Yeo will more than likely start on the bench and come on in the second half at some point. It will also almost certainly be the last time Gareth McAuley plays for City at SIncil Bank.

Who I think will start (Right to left)

Marriott

Beevers      Morgan    McAuley      McCombe   Hughes

Brown        Kerr

Green    M/Robinson    Forrester

 

Grimsby Town, a side that slowly faded away as the season went off and after challenging for the title, they will be extremely disappointed that they didn't even make automatic promotion despite going into the final day with a high chance they they could get 3rd place. They needed to get a better result that Leyton Orient and with less than a minute of injury time to go, it seemed everything was going right, Orient were drawing at Oxford and Grimsby were beating Northampton, however a goal at both games changed everything. Orient scored a goal to make it 3-2 and then it didn't matter what Grimsby did and that was a good thing for the Mariners as Northampton scored a LATE LATE goal.

Grimsby's finest moment of the season came in the 87th minute in the 2nd ROund of the Carling Cup when Kalala scored from the edge of the area to give the Mariners a 1-0 win over Premiership side, Tottenham Hotspur. They were knocked out in the next round however when Alan Shearer (who also deservedly got a taste of his own over-rated medicene from Whittle) scored the ony goal of the game.

Grimsby's away record is extremely good, almost as good as the Imps' home record. 9 wins from 23 games is one of the main reasons that Grimsby have had their first good season in a while and just 5 defeats. The only team that finished outside the top 3 that scored more goals on the road than Grimsby were Wycombe. Grimsby's away wins came at Bristol Rovers, Barnet, Chester, Peterborough, Cheltenham, Oxford, Bury, Wrexham and Notts County.

One cause for concern for the Mariners would be that they've won just once since losing 5-0 at Sincil Bank and that ironically came against Cheltenham Town, a team that they did the double over and could meet in the final if they get past the Imps.

Despite not winning at Sincil Bank since 1958, the Mariners have a good record at Sincil Bank, winning 15 of the 44 meetings compared to City's 18 victories, however, you get the feeling that City will definatly need something at Blundell Park as Grimsby have won 23 of the 44 meetings there, compared to City's 9.