Lincoln United Are Coming... Again!

The 2006/07 FA Trophy campaign begins in earnest as once again as Mossley set foot on the road to venue to be decided. Our visitors for this first round tie are Lincoln United, who'll be making their way up to Seel Park for the second time this season.

Both sides entered our first meeting this season having picked up their opening wins of the campaign over the preceding Bank Holiday weekend, but it was United that kept their winning run going at the expense of Mossley's with a relatively comfortable 2-1 victory; Terry Bowker getting a second half consolation goal for the shot shy Lilywhites. At that time both sides were stumbling around the foot of the table, but what's happened in those seven short weeks?

Well we're still managing to stay just ahead of the relegation spots in 17th place; level on points with the teams we're sandwiched between but, crucially, having played more games. Lincoln on the other hand have rocketed up the table since that day in September and now look down on us from the lofty perch of 6th place.

Form wise Lincoln are currently playing better away from their Ashby Avenue base but over the course of the last six games they've struggled in front of goal, managing to hit the net on only three occassions. However that's more than balanced out by the fact they've only conceded three as well.

Unfortunately Mossley's best form is coming away from home too, not that there's that much difference between what's happening at Seel Park and 'on the road', though we are almost scoring as many as we are conceding. There are likely to be some changes too to the side that drew against Hednesford and Prescot over the past week (Shillitoe's injury picked up in the game against the latter and Stalybridge not wanting Turley cup-tied) but its not as though we're lacking in options at the attacking end of the field at the moment.

Prediction: Of course there's the saying that form counts for nothing in cup matches but in truth it does - a team at the top is just as likely to beat one at the bottom whether it's a cup game or not. However I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that there's some substance behind the old adage on Saturday. This is an extremely winnable game so I'll go for a Mossley victory in the, hopefully not misguided, belief that it's going to happen again sooner rather than later.