League 2: Torquay United vs Lincoln City

[Plymouth Gull]

Plainmoor
Saturday 2nd April 2011
KO: 3pm

For the first time for a long time, we have had a full week to prepare for a fixture, as midtable side Lincoln City come to town. We had a very successful, but tiring March, as we played 8 games, won 4, drew 3 and lost just the once, the narrow 1-0 defeat at Aldershot. We have had a month of ups and down, fluctuating between 4th and 10th. We did have a chance to go into the top 3 for a few hours, but a 96th minute goal by Guillem Bauza (which was an excellent finish, having seen it again), deprived us of that opportunity. Still, we lie 8th place and still very much in contention for a top 7 spot. However, this is the sort of game we need to pick up points from, as our run in looks a bit tough, on paper.

GULLS NEWS.

Errm, from what I know of, there are no new injury concerns. Billy Kee returned to fitness with a goal in the 5-1 victory over Plymouth on Tuesday. I think Lloyd Macklin could be pushing for a place, as he hit two in that fixture. On a different note, Guy Branston is one booking off being suspended for two games, I believe.

LINCOLN NEWS.

Well, it sounds like they're having a bit of an injury crisis. No doubt Carayol will play out of his skin, and I believe they have recalled Drewe Broughton, who seems to score against us whenever he plays! They do apparently have only 2 fit defenders, or something silly, so I'm hoping we take advantage of this.

FORM (LAST 6 GAMES).

Torquay - LWWDWD

Lincoln - LWDLLL

As you can see, we're on better form going into this one. Lincoln have lost 4 of their last 6, including a 6-0 home defeat on Friday night. An improved performance at Vale Park on Tuesday saw them go down 2-1, after leading at half time. Their away form is dodgy looking though, having picked up 2 points from 18, recently.

PROBABLE LINE UP.

This is the side that lost 2-1 to Port Vale:

Elliot Parish

Julian Kelly
Adam Watts
Daniel Hone
Joe Anderson

Gavin McCallum
Tom Kilbey
Josh O'Keefe
Ali Fuseini
Mustapha Carayol

Ben Hutchinson

PLAYERS TO WATCH.

Carayol, as I said, will no doubt have been waiting for this one all year. Gavin McCallum scored against us last year for Hereford, if I remember rightly, and scored their goal on Tuesday. They have pace on both wings, so will need to be watched carefully.

PREDICTION.

Gulls 2-0 Imps

[Fletch]

As you left out the match officials, I think the ref is the same as the Bury home match. Cant remember if he was good, bad or indifferent, must check back through the threads

[Trojan 67]

Good work as usual Nick

As squeaky bum time approaches, no predictions from me, although I'll stick my neck out and say there'll be a fair few vouchers handed out on Saturday.

[Plymouth Gull]

Sorry Fletch. Gotta admit, this one was a bit rushed as I've got some college stuff needing doing and so it was just a basic one.

[RussianGull]

Torquay vs Lincoln (home and away) are my biggest matches of the season. We did them at the beginning of the season and I very much look forward to taking the full 6points off of them.

Last year can you remember Lincoln beat us at home using that Leeds magician Davide Somma, well this time they've got no-one of his calibre in their squad, and so I think we're going to take them to town.

Let's take them to the cleaners.

3-0 Gulls!

[ferrarilover]

Yeah, Somma, little shit, he's far too good for Leeds, let alone anyone in L2. He's considerable better than Beckford and look where he is now. I believe Somma would walk straight into the starting 11 of anyone outside the top 6 of the Premier League. Can you imagine him at Fulham, or Stoke, he'd be their best player by a mile, and that's no disrespect to the current squads of either of those two sides.
He stood out in our match last year like HMS invincible at the battle of Waterloo and I am super glad, like my Russian friend above, that he is gone.

Although, that said, their away form is shocking, they're struggling with injuries, they're not all that good when at full strength, they'll probably have some other mysterious issue befall them prior to kick off... What's the betting they stuff us 3-1 or something daft?

Matt.

[Wisconsin_gull]

2-0 and the gary glitter chant is required

[Bigman]

I think this is a very important game if we're to push for playoffs/promotion. While I'm confident we can up our game and take points off the teams in the top half that we've still to play this season, it's the next couple of games against teams lower down the league (the likes of which we've struggled against recently) that are more concerning. A couple of disappointing results and there's a gap to the playoffs again, but 4+ points and we're right in the mix and can then start taking points off our promotion rivals.

I'm sure with the gap since the last match Bucks will have them prepared and really up for this one. I'll predict something similar to Cheltenham - domination with the traditional late scare, 2-1.

[Awayday]

To be fair we need to win every game until the end of the season for any chance of the play offs / automatic promotion.
The fact we have still to play Port Vale, Wycombe and Chesterfield scares me.

A must win game 3-0 to the Yellows (Branston, Kee, Zebs)

[Fonda]

I think this is a very important game if we're to push for playoffs/promotion. While I'm confident we can up our game and take points off the teams in the top half that we've still to play this season, it's the next couple of games against teams lower down the league (the likes of which we've struggled against recently) that are more concerning. A couple of disappointing results and there's a gap to the playoffs again, but 4+ points and we're right in the mix and can then start taking points off our promotion rivals.

I'm sure with the gap since the last match Bucks will have them prepared and really up for this one. I'll predict something similar to Cheltenham - domination with the traditional late scare, 2-1.

This pretty much saves me having to write my own prediction. It's almost a must-win game, and one we should win. But expectancy has never sat comfortably with us. The extra quality of our current loanee's will hopefully get us over the line in this one.

[Plymouth Gull]

Torquay vs Lincoln (home and away) are my biggest matches of the season. We did them at the beginning of the season and I very much look forward to taking the full 6points off of them.

Last year can you remember Lincoln beat us at home using that Leeds magician Davide Somma, well this time they've got no-one of his calibre in their squad, and so I think we're going to take them to town.

Let's take them to the cleaners.

3-0 Gulls!

Maybe not in the same calibre as Somma, granted, but Ashley Grimes has done extremely well there. Since joining on at the end of October, he's scored 16 goals for them. He has been injured, but is included for them. Hopefully he doesn't play..

[gulls_aloud]

How well I remember this fixture last year and how dire I thought we were until Nico suddenly got his place back and everything changed. Maybe that's unfair and Somma was simply too good for us that day. I still remember those amazingly haunting Nicholson chants. This time around I agree that Muzzy will come here with something to prove, but I have faith in our boys and I'm sure they'll be well up for it!! No prediction this time, just nervous anticipation and hope!!

[knh316]

dont know why but i think this could be our biggest win of the season.our strikers all seem to be hitting form together

[Fletch]

As you left out the match officials, I think the ref is the same as the Bury home match. Cant remember if he was good, bad or indifferent, must check back through the threads

Errrr. Looking back, if its the same one, he fell for Sodje play acting to gift them a penalty...

[Jeff]

Desperately hoping that Grimes and Hone fail their fitness tests for Lincoln, as that will leave them seriously weakened. A Goalkeeper fresh out of kindergarten, down to 2 fit centre halves (one of whom (Kanyuka) is a massive liability), and only 1 fit senior forward.

Looking at how they lined up at Vale, its a clear 4-5-1 with Hutchinson up top and looking to get Carayol and McCallum forward from the wings when they attack. Bearing in mind that Grimes only trained for the first time yesterday, I'd expect him to be on the bench if at all and for them to line up the same.

If we play at our best, we should have more than enough quality for Lincoln. But thats the magic if! Of course, Lincoln - smarting after a couple of defeats - could come out with a backs to the wall mentality, try and stifle the game and hit us on the break with the undoubted pace they possess.

Absolute massive game tomorrow. My heart says 2-0 Gulls, but my head says that we normally slip up in this sort of game so I'd take any result that moves us closer to the top 7.