[jjamez]

Now that the tinpot trophy is out of the way, Town can focus solely on the League campaign and the challenge of getting out of this division at the first time of asking, because as seen by numerous clubs, if you don't, then it becomes even harder to achieve.

Saturday sees us face what I would consider our first real home test with the arrival of Lincoln City, yes we have played some decent sides in Charlton, Barnsley and Wigan, but the style of play they all had and types of players made me feel that they were sides that we should be beating at home. We have also lost to Northampton and Blackpool at home, once again, two sides that I feel we should have been beating at home. Lincoln, however, come with a contrasting style of play to ours, one that relies on pace and a more dynamic system, something that I feel our side isn't always best suited to coming up against, considering the sheer pace of Helik, Lees and Pearson combined.

The Imps were founded 140 years ago in 1884 as an amateur side, turning professional in the 1891–92 season, and soon helped to form what was then the Second Division in 1892–93 season. Lincoln moved from the John O'Gaunts Ground to Sincil Bank in 1895 and became only the third club to be represented by a Black player in an English Football League game when John Walker made his debut for them in a home game against Middlesbrough. They failed re-election to the Football League in 1908 but won immediate re-election after winning the Midland League. They became founder members of the Football League Third Division North in 1921 and won promotion as champions in 1932, but were relegated two seasons later. They were crowned Third Division North champions once again in 1948, but were relegated the following season. They would remain in the second tier for nine seasons after again winning the Third Division North title in 1951–52 but two successive relegations left them dwindling in the Fourth Division by 1962, where they would remain until the late Graham Taylor's title winning campaign of 1975–76. They would yo-yo between the Third and Fourth division for the next 10 years, missing out on promotion to the Second Division in 1982 and 1983. By 1986 they had been relegated back to the Fourth division and the following season became the first side to suffer automatic relegation out of the football league. They bounced back at the first time of asking as champions of the Conference league. In the 1997-98 season, Lincoln were promoted from the Third Division, that same season they played at The McAlpine, despite the two sides never meeting in that season. They faced local side Emley at Sincil Bank and drew 2-2 leading to a replay in West Yorkshire, however, the Welfare Ground was felt to be ill equipped to host such a game leading to the tie being held at Towns ground. It would go to extra time with Emley eventually winning 4-3. The Pewits would eventually get knocked out by Harry Redknapps West Ham side, with future England icon Frank Lampard scoring for a side that also featured Rio Ferdinand, John Hartson and future Town man David Unsworth. Lincoln however were relegated the following season and would languish in the bottom tier, battling administration in 2002, by the end of the 02-03 season they had lost to Bournemouth 5-3 in the Play Off final and two seasons later would be in the Play Offs once again, this time losing to Town 4-3 over the two legs. The next season the Play Offs would beckon once again, and yet again they would fall at the final hurdle losing 2-0 to Southend. By the 05-06 season Lincoln fans would have been fed up of seeing the Play Offs and would be sick once again as they lost to local rivals Grimsby over two legs and you'll never believe it, the very next season, they would lose to Bristol Rovers in the Play Off semi finals. Something had to give and eventually it did, a few seasons of missing out led to them being relegated on the final day of the 2010-11 season. They would stay in the national league for a few seasons until getting promoted in the 16-17 season with the Cowley brothers at the helm, the same season that saw a prominent FA Cup run, where they would beat the likes of Ipswich, Brighton and Burnley before being beaten by Arsenal. Their first season back in the football league ended with another unhappy play off campaign but an FA Trophy on the mantelpiece, before they won automatic promotion the following season. Back in league one, they would knock Town out of the league cup. The season would see the brothers move north to the John Smiths, whilst the Imps would retain their place in league one. The next season the Imps would once again reach Wembley, but once again they would fall short in the final, losing to Blackpool. The next two seasons went without issue but without any play offs, last season they finished just outside the play off places in seventh.



Managed by former Leeds United caretaker Michael Skubala, the Imps sit 9th with no win in their last 6 league games. Skubala himself never played professional football, instead he was a PE teacher in Leicestershire, coupling teaching with part time coaching at non league Barwell as well as in the academies of Coventry City and Nottingham Forest. He became director of football at Loughborough University, before being headhunted by the FA, where he became head coach of England national futsal team. Skubala then progressed to work with the England U18's, whilst also working at UEFA as a football advisor. He then moved on to work for Leeds' under 21 side, he would take a caretaker role when the club sacked Jesse Marsch, he would move to a first team role with the appointment of Javi Gracia before leaving Elland Road to take the top job at Lincoln in November last year. Lincoln, appointing PE teachers, where have we heard that one before? Although Town are one to talk about appointing teachers.
The Imps began the season with a win away at Burton Albion, defender Paudie O'Connor bagging a brace, whilst Lasse Sorensen's replacement Tendayi Darikwa notched the other in a 3-2 win. They were knocked out of the League Cup by Harrogate, before losing at home to Barnsley 2-1, they bounced back with a 4-1 thumping of kinda local rivals Mansfield, with Adam Jackson bagging a brace, before continuing with a 1-0 win away at Stevenage. They drew away at Peterborough and at home to Wigan before beating Cambridge 2-0, thanks to goals for Bailey Cadamarteri, son of Danny and Freddie Draper. Next up was a trip to the seaside to face Blackpool, where they managed to salvage a point in the 95th minute through Tom Hamer, despite being reduced to 10 men in the 70th minute. Jovon Makama and Drapper scored in a 2-1 win at home over Leyton Orient before they succumbed 3-1 at home to Birmingham, with Cads Junior scoring in the first minute. Things didn't get any better as they fell 3-0 to Crawley, they did bounce back straight away with a 2-1 win over promotion hopefuls Stockport County, Cadamarteri and Ben House sealed a comeback win for the Imps. They continued the theme of home 2-1 wins beating 10 man Northampton by the same scoreline, Hamer and Erik Ring on the scoresheet this time after Town torturer Tarique Fosu gave the Cobblers a second minute lead. Lincoln avoided an FA Cupset away at Chesham, beating the non league side 4-0 before drawing 1-1 away at Bristol Rovers. They drew once again on the road, this time 0-0 away at Exeter, who saw Ryan Woods sent off in second half injury time. Next up was league leaders Wycombe Wanderers who came to Sincil Bank and left with all three points thanks to a 3-2 victory, Darikwa bagged a brace for the Imps but it wasn't enough as Joe Low, Fred Onyedinma and Richard Kone bagged for the Chairboys. Darikwa was on the scoresheet once again as the Imps were welcomed to Wrexham, unfortunately it was in his own goal as the Imps lost 1-0. They edged into the 3rd round of the FA Cup in a goal fest at Crawley, winning 4-3, earning a tie at Premier League champions elect Birmingham City. Their poor league form continued as they lost away at Rotherham, Makama scoring a goal sandwiched between efforts from Sean Raggett and Sam Nombe. Last time out in the league they played out a 0-0 draw at home to Charlton.



Ben House who is the most lethal player in front of goal with 4 goals scored. The rest of the list is followed by Tendayi Darikwa (3 goals), Bailey-Tye Cadamarteri (3 goals), Adam Jackson (2 goals), Paudie O'Connor (2 goals), Jovon Makama (2 goals), and finally, Jack Moylan (2 goal). With Paudie O'Connor having 3 assists, Bayliss having 3 and Darikwa not far behind with 2 assist. The ones to watch though are Cademarteri and Darikwa. Cads Junior made his league debut for Wednesday last season, sometimes leading the line on his own, he scored his first goal for the Owls against Blackburn and won Young Player of the month for December, Town were apparently one of the clubs interested in loaning him this season, along with Dom Ballard now at Blackpool, but focused on bringing Joe Taylor also formerly of Lincoln to the club and we know how that went. He is quite a robust and pacey striker that would be affectionately known as a rat. Darikwa is at the other end of his career, now 32, he begun his career at Chesterfield where he made 125 appearances before moving to Burnley, he spent two seasons there before heading to boyhood club, Nottingham Forest. He was there for four years, but only made 58 appearances for the Trees before moving to Wigan, he had a more productive spell there, but was unable to turn down the lure of continental football in Cyprus, but he stayed there just the year before moving to Lincoln. Known as a pacy player, he was originally a winger, but has moved further back now.



Town will be without Jonny Hogg for this one, and the christmas period as he suffered a calf injury in the warm up on Tuesday, Joe Hodge is close to returning to training, whilst Lee Nicholls is still not fully ready for a return to action. Sorensen got 30 mins on Tuesday and will be an option for saturday, Radinio Balker got his first 45 mins since his injury in pre season, but will still be a fair way from a comeback, Callum Marshall is fit to return however, with the only long term absentees being Mikel Miller and Bojan Radulovic's footballing ability and desire.



Lincoln appear to be rather healthy, having been able to rotate the strikers in the last few games, but will be without Adam jackson and Tom Hamer. Skubala on the game "They’ve got a good style, they do it differently. What you’re starting to see is the bigger clubs migrate to the top of the league which you were always going to see. The teams with real strength in depth are starting to come good. On our day we believe we can compete with anybody. They’re really good at home, they’re an effective team who are good at set pieces and get the ball in the box to put you under pressure."

“We want to be solid, but also try to affect the game and go and win the game. Every game that we go into, whether we get the performance or not, we believe we can go and beat teams from top to bottom. At the minute it’s not quite landed the way we’ve wanted it to in the league, but we’ve just got to keep going."

“Set pieces are a huge part of football, they make up almost 33% of goals in games. When you need to defend them you need the right profiles to help you defend them on the pitch especially against a team that are good at them, but we also want to score from them ourselves. We do a lot of work on set pieces. Huddersfield are a strong team at set pieces, and they’re good at getting them - they’re quite physically dominant. Conversely we need to stand up to that and put our own stamp on it at the other end of the pitch.”



With regards to meetings between the two sides, there hasn't been a great deal considering the age of the two clubs. The first meeting came in 1910, but Towns first win came in 1913. Overall Town have beaten the Imps 16 times, with 10 draws and 13 defeats. The sides were regular opposition during the 1910's until 1920, there would be one FA Cup tie in 1928 between the sides and then a long lull with the sides not meeting again until 1952. From there, the rest of the 50's handful of meetings until 1960. 15 years would pass again until the next league meeting between the sides, there was a league cup meeting in the middle of that period however. The sides would reacquaint themselves until the early 80's, then another lull for the 90's with just two cup meetings in the same year of 1994, it would be nearly a decade before the sides met again, back in the bottom division. Lincoln would win the home fixture 3-1, future Town forward Gary Taylor Fletcher opening the scoring for the Imps, the fixture in Yorkshire would see Town run out 2-1 winners with Efe Sodje and Pawel Abbott scoring for the Terriers. The season would end for Lincoln with a 2-1 defeat at Sincil Bank, Iffy Onuora and David Mirfin scoring either side of GTF, before the second leg at the McAlpine would finish 2-2, although the Imps made it nervy scoring twice in the space of two minutes, but Town would hold on for a trip to Cardiff and we know how that ended. That would be the last meeting between the sides in a league fixture, although they would meet as mentioned in the League Cup where recently relegated Premier League Town would lose 1-0.



Lincoln were busy little Imps in the summer window, without really breaking the bank, they signed young keeper George Wickens from Fulham along with fellow keepers Zach Jeacock and Jamie Pardington from Birmingham and Cheltenham respectively. Left back Saxon Earley joined on loan from Plymouth, although there are rumours that the Pilgrims will be recalling him in January. On the other side Tom Hamer joined from Burton and midfielder Connor McGrandles joined from Charlton. They raided Sweden for the signing of winger Erik Ring and looked closer to home in the loan signing of Bailey Cadamarteri from Sheffield Wednesday. They signed midfielders JJ McKiernan and Dom Jefferies from League two sides Morecambe and Gillingham as well as Tom Bayliss from Shrewsbury. They signed Darikwa from Limassol, with the former Wigan and Forest man coming in to replace Sorensen, whilst their big money signing was Rob Street from Cheltenham.

Leaving the club was obviously Sorensen for a reported fee just shy of £500k, whilst Bradford loaned Jay Benn, Wimbledon loaned Alistair Smith and Tranmere loaned Zak Bradshaw. Former Town men Jordan Wright and Jaden Brown both left over the summer, to Grimsby and St Mirren, Millwall signed Danish keeper Lukas Jensen, whilst youngsters Hayden Cann and Elicha Ahui both moved to Ireland to Dundalk and Drogheda, they were joined on the Emerald Isle by Daniel Mandroiu who moved to Shamrock Rovers. Young keeper Sam Long moved to Bromley, winger Haseeb Adelakun moved to Salford and Teddy Bishop joined the Cowleys at Colchester.

In terms of representing both sides, one of our more recent success stories is that of Harry Toffolo, the left back began at Norwich before moving to Millwall, eventually dropping down to Lincoln, he would spend two seasons there, moving up the divisions with them, playing a part knocking town out of the league cup. Little Jack Payne also played a part in that game, although he only spent a season at the club before moving to Swindon. He is now at Colchester with the Brothers. That defeat saw Jan Siewert shown the door with Danny and Nicky Cowley coming in to replace him. Toffolo would follow the brothers to Yorkshire in the January window, and would spend two seasons forming a bromance with Lewis O'brien down the left hand side, they moved to Nottingham together and whilst O'brien has struggled, Toffolo has managed 43 appearances for the Trees, but game time has dwindled of late, and his contract is due to expire at the end of the season...you know what to do Kev!



Town signed Lasse Sorensen this summer from Lincoln, the Dane began his career as a midfielder at Esbjerg before moving to Stoke, presumably signed by Mark Cartwright. He would make 8 appearances in total in the Potteries before heading to Lincoln, he made 118 appearances for the Imps scoring 8 goals before moving to Yorkshire, becoming the first signing of the Michael Duff era, he won player of the season and goal of the season during his time in Lincolnshire. During his time at the club he was joined briefly by Jaden Brown, who featured on the opposite flank during a loan spell from Sheffield Wednesday, he made 10 appearances for the Imps, and 28 for Town during his stay here. He has been in the news recently after having his contract torn up by Scottish side St Mirren after appearing in court for multiple driving offences. They also had Jordan Wright in goal, the keeper spent half a season on loan at Town when there was a few injuries to the goalkeepers at the club but he failed to make an appearance for the Terriers and is now plying his trade at Grimsby Town.



Beanpole defender Jamie McCombe had two spells at Lincoln during his career, his first came in 2004 where he spent two seasons at Sincil Bank, making 87 appearances before moving to Bristol City for 4 season. He would spend two seasons at Town including loans at Preston and winning promotion to the Championship, before being released and joining Doncaster. He rejoined Lincoln in 2016 and spent 4 more years at the club, but didn't make as many appearances as he transitioned into a coaching role with the Imps, including having a caretaker spell in 2019 when Cowley left to join Town, he failed to win any of his three games in charge, losing two and drawing one.

Muzzy Carayol spent a season at Sincil Bank earlier in his career making 33 appearances for the club before leaving for Bristol Rovers, after a year there he joined Middlesbrough, making 50 appearances over 4 seasons, including having loan spells at Town and Leeds, before leaving for Nottingham Forest. He had a two year spell on the continent in Cyprus and Turkey but returned in 2021, playing for Gillingham and Burton before joining Exeter this summer. Huddersfield boy Delroy Facey was in the Lincoln squad at the same time as Carayol, Facey had one permanent and one loan spell at the Imps as he did with Town. His first spell with Town saw him make 75 for the side before leaving for Bolton, he would come back on loan in 2005 for a brief 4 game spell. He would join Lincoln on loan in 2009 after a long spell at Notts County, he would turn the loan full time and stay at Lincoln for one further season but he was coming to the end of his career by then and would drop down the leagues from then on, in 2015 his career finished as Facey was found guilty of match fixing and jailed for 2 and a half years.

Jamaican international Frank Sinclair had spells at both sides. He began his career at Chelsea where he would make over 160 appearances for the club before moving to Leicester City, there, he would make a further 164 appearances before moving north to Burnley. He would fall short of making 100 appearances for Burnley before making the loan move to Peter Jackson's Town. The Terriers would make it permanent after Burnley released him and he would make 29 appearances for the club, being sent off 3 times in the short time he was at the club. He would be released by Town and move to Lincoln, who were then managed by Jackson who had moved there after being sacked by Town, Sinclair finished his playing career in 2015 at Brackley Town, he has since managed Hednesford and coached at the likes of Stoke and Doncaster. Speaking of Peter Jackson, he managed both sides, having two spells at Town. He managed to save Town from relegation in his first spell before being moved on for Steve Bruce after two years in the job, he returned to Town in 2003 after the club staved off administration, falling to division three in the process. He would get Town promoted via the play offs, the next season saw Town finish ninth, just missing out the play-off places for promotion to the Championship. Town had a great start to the 2005–06 campaign with Jackson winning Manager of the Month for August 2005 and after eventually finishing fourth and making the League One Play-Offs, they lost 3–2 to Barnsley on aggregate. Jackson left Huddersfield in 2007, with his contract cancelled by mutual consent. In October 2007, Jackson was appointed as manager of League Two side Lincoln City who were bottom of the Football League. In February 2008, he was diagnosed with throat cancer but Lincoln won five of their six games in February to lift them clear of the relegation places and Jackson was named the League Two manager of the month. He was presented with his award in his final game before beginning treatment, when his side defeated Wycombe Wanderers 1–0 to lift them up to 14th in the table. In his absence, Lincoln were managed by Jackson's assistant Iffy Onuora, with assistance from Youth Team Coach Grant Brown. He returned to action and in January 2009 signed a new contract with Lincoln to keep him at the club until 2011. After a 1–0 loss in a Football League Trophy game to Darlington on 1 September 2009, Lincoln City parted company with Peter Jackson along with assistant Iffy Onoura. He would have his last managerial role in 2011 at Bradford where he struggled to make an impact before resigning.

Any excuse to bring this one out

The 2007-08 Lincoln squad possessed a number of former Town players, including David Graham, who had a loan at Town from Sheffield Wednesday, Adie Moses, who had two seasons at both Town and Lincoln during his career and Nat Brown who came through Towns academy and spent 5 seasons at the club before joining Lincoln after being released. He would leave the Imps in 2008 before returning on loan in 2013, he would rejoin permanently the same year and spend a further 3 seasons with the club

The already mentioned GTF spent 2 seasons at Lincoln before joining Town, he scored 27 goals for the Imps in 85 appearances, at Town he would make 84 appearances scoring 22 times, including the 500,000th goal in The Football League. He would leave Town to join Blackpool, where he would make it to the Premier League, scoring in the Play Off final to get them there as well as scoring the tangerines first ever goal in the top division. He left when his contract expired and joined Leicester City, playing a role in their return to the top flight but he never made an appearance for the Foxes there and begun a journeyman career down the leagues before moving into non league management.



Speaking of the pe teachers, the Cowley Bros were heavily headhunted by Phil Hodgkinson, Danny bounced around the non league scene in London and got his first role in coaching at Concord Rangers, first as assistant and then as joint manager. His time there saw the club rise from the Essex Senior League to the National League South as well as reaching the first round of the FA Cup. He left to join Braintree in the league above, now joined at the hip by his brother as assistant, he would teach PE during the day ahead of training the part time club in the evenings. They spent the one season at Braintree, finishing third before losing in the play offs to Grimsby. Now at Lincoln, also in the National League, they guided them back to the football league at the first time of asking, before taking them to League One a couple of seasons later as champions. After a few games in League One Town came calling and the brothers finally yielded to Towns advances, but having failed to get a real upturn in form at the club, despite possessing a squad capable of success in the premier league according to Phil, relegation was only narrowly avoided and they were replaced by Carlos Corberan. They went back down South to manage Portsmouth but failed to get them back into the championship and eventually given their marching orders, both seasons started well but tapered off significantly. They currently manage at league two outfit Colchester, now known as making the side incredibly difficult to defeat, they have been struggling to win games.



Only a few simple anagrams, but if people are interested I'd be up for doing a 2024 quiz, it could be general knowledge or just sport based. I'll let you lot argue among yourselves.

1) How Secretly Rob
2) Ably Aide It Arm Race
3) Holy Roof Fart
4) He Blackmail USA
5) Terry Graft Lacy Hole

[Lord Snooty]

Nice one jjamez.

I went to that Emley game. A cracker. Bring back FA Cup replays, I say.

[theo_luddite]

5. Can I now ever unsee GTF having a Lacy Hole Graft? It's like a nightmare episode of When Plastic Surgery Goes Wrong.

Another good read jjamez. Go have a lie down with a cold (or warm) drink of your choice. I'd go have one too but I'm busy wrapping prezzies and writing Christmas cards to drop off oop Nooerth this weekend, just in case Santa's sleigh gets stuck in the slush on Christmas Eve. As occassionally happens. That or Rudolph downs too many Babychams and Snowballs whilst ignoring the carrots.

[Lord Snooty]

TOWN’S TEAM vs LINCOLN CITY (H)

13. Jacob Chapman
3. Josh Ruffels
4. Matty Pearson
5. Michał Helik ©
8. Ben Wiles
10. Josh Koroma
16. Herbie Kane
18. David Kasumu
20. Ollie Turton
23. Nigel Lonwijk
25. Danny Ward

SUBSTITUTES

Chris Maxwell; Lasse Sorensen, Callum Marshall, Jaheim Headley, Brodie Spencer, Freddie Ladapo, Tom Iorpenda

[Lord Snooty]

Rubbish first half. Lincoln not letting us do owt and when they do, we're too slow to do owt anyway.

And why didn't we sign young Cadamarteri when we had the chance? Much better than any of our current strikers. His dad would be more use up front than what we have now.

Change summat, Duff!

[theo_luddite]

He did, but how is that rugby tackle on Wiles not a penalty? Having watched the Sky highlights, it's still a rugby tackle.

[WakeyTerrier]

Watched the game on my phone out here, 1st half we were like a bunch of strangers who couldn't pass a football. Every time we had it we somehow found a Lincoln man despite being under no pressure. It also showed that having defenders as wing backs gives us a problem getting forward.
2nd half was so much better and we deserved to get something out of the game. Stonewall penalty turned down as well..
Please Kev sign 2 forwards in January. One who can bully defenders and another who knows where the goal is.

[Lord Snooty]

A classic game of two halves. The players should've read jjamez's excellent preview, then they would've known what to expect from them there Imps.

Thankfully Duff did change things at half time and the second half was an absolute crackerjack of a match. Why don't we play that way all the time?

Kasumu brilliant again, but a few stray passes stoped him from getting a 10 out of 10. He was the only one getting any credit from the first half.

As for the referee and his team. How neither he or the liner thought that wasn't a penalty is beyond me. We would've missed it anyway, but let's have the chance to have it in the first place, please. And the punch straight in Helik's face near the end of the game, how have they all missed that?

So coming back from two down to get a point actually feels like a win, rather than two points lost.

[jjamez]

That first half was up there with some of the worst football I've seen from a town side and I'm including the last two seasons in the championship.

Pearson was ill and off it completely, heading a ball near his ankles was stupid to say the least. Turton kept getting caught too far infield or outnumbered on the right.

Second half was far better, Lincoln appeared to tire a little and after we pulled one back and started getting a few half chances that we're coming from them no being able to get out, they started to get flustered and making errors that in the first half they weren't.

Bailey cadamarteri looked good, a big lad with athleticism, the guy on the right looked quick and a unit too. They were younger than us but if they keep the bulk of the squad together they could be a very good side

[theo_luddite]

It could be worse, we could support Sarfamton. I know Spurs ripped us a new one that caused Wagbo to all but abandon his gegenpressing tactics but we weren't 4 down in 20 odd minutes with fans streaming out of the ground either.