Bring Yer Lungs & Coats The Climb Starts Now!

Get your scarves and gloves out and get to the Bank about 7.15 tonight for the build up to the Imps must win clash with Port Vale. The Cup may have given us a financial fillip, but it is the bread and butter stuff of League 2 in all its glory that will ultimately sustain us. Let`s crank things up and show the team that we believe both Vale and Crewe are beatable if we apply ourselves. We now have a target man for all our pretty approach play and a target man in Delroy Facey, a caged beast, desperate to come up with the goods. A quality player the powerhouse centre forward is more than capable of meeting Sutton`s strict criteria and being the target man we crave. Unleash the new beast of the bank let Delroy prove to Sven that he is no bench warmer. He will be the face that fits.

Micky Adams and Port Vale are desperate to halt a run of draws that has seen them falter with just one win in their last 12 in all competitions. To put it mildly they are draw specialists with 10 from their opening 18 games. Chris Sutton meanwhile is desperate to keep the cup bonhomie going by getting some much needed points on the board in League 2.

Look out for a very attack minded Lincoln City tonight as Sutton starts to set out our pre January sales stall. The midfield is looking like a cohesive and formidable unit with two potential wizards in the middle (see The Line-Ups). We need the points we want the points and though it wont be our biggest gate of the season by any means the passion both on and of the pitch will keep us warm and drive us to a win.


League Positions

Imps 21st League 2
Port Vale 14th League 2

The Imps Line-Up

Facey is set to start alongside Jamie 'The Spark` Clarke with Fagan on the bench. Khano Smith and Flash Gordon have thrown so many crosses at the two of them yesterday you would think Adrian 'The Count` Patulea had returned from Orient for the day. In the centre of midfield on fire Cruncher Kerr will play sorcerer and apprentice with Herd. The lad is anything but and really stood out from the crowd on Saturday out wide, but the centre is his favourite and most effective position. Janos will sit this one out with Baker and Watts preferred in the centre. The back four will be complemented by Hughton and Lichay our live wire wing backs. Aaron Brown and Ian Pearce are available for selection after completing their suspensions and Pulis appears to be recovering from his knock though Saturday is his earliest realistic target.

Formation 442
(G) Burch
(D) Hughton, Baker, Watts, Lichaj
(M) Gordon, Kerr, Herd, Smith
(ST) Facey, J Clarke

Subs.
20 Paul Musselwhite (G), Janos Kovacs, Daniel Hone (D) (D) Moses (D) Brian Gilmour (M), Aaron Brown / Stefan Oakes (M) Fagan (ST).

Form
Overall Record 21st
P 18 W 5 D 4 L 9 F 11 A 21 GD -10 PTS 18
Home Record Pos 15th
P 9 W 3 D 3 L 3 F 6 A 8 GD -2 PTS 6
Biggest Home Win 3-0 Darlington
Heaviest Home Defeat 0-3 Notts County


Port Vale Line-Up
Mark Richards will aim to end his goal drought though Sean Rigg is back in contention after being cup tied against Huddersfield. Captain Frazer will again be missed in the middle as he serves the last game of his 3 match ban. Vale are short on numbers at the back with Micky Adams again unable to name a defender on the bench. With centre-back Gareth Owen recovering from a successful operation on Friday to repair a fractured cheekbone, Luke Prosser again deputises. Ex Imps Attacker Louis Dodds and Geoff Horsfield may feature at some point, though Dodds and central midfielder Jason Jarrett are dropped to the bench as Rob Taylor and Adam Yates earned successful recalls on Saturday, albeit a 0-1 defeat, and are favoured to start.


Formation 4-4-2
GK - Martin
(D) Yates, McCombe, Collins, Prosser
(M) K Taylor, Griffith, Loft, R Taylor
(STR) Richards, Haldane / Sean Rigg

Subs
Joe Anyon (G) Jarrett (M) David Howland (M) Horsfield (ST) Dodds (ST) James Lawrie/Sean Rigg (ST)

Form
Overall Record 14th
P 18 W 4 D 10 L 4 F 20 A 19 GD +1 PTS 18
Away Record Pos 9th
P 9 W 2 D 5 L 2 F 8 A 10 GD -2 PTS 6
Biggest Away Win Shrewsbury Town 0-1, Crewe Alexandra 1-2
Heaviest Away Defeat Macclesfield Town 0-2, Notts County 1-3


Heroes & Villains

Imps Hotshots
Rene Howe 5
Jamie Clarke 4
Chris Fagan 4

Imps Assists
3 Scott Kerr
2 Cian Hughton, Lenell John-Lewis
1 Stefan Oakes, Michael Gordon

Imps Card Collectors
Reds 3
1 Aaron Brown
1 Ian Pearce
1 Eric Lichaj

Yellows 37
6 Janos Kovacs
4 Scott Kerr,
3 Moses Swaibu, Shane Clarke, Rene Howe,
2 Anthony Pulis, Stefan Oakes, Andrew Hutchinson, Cian Hughton.
1 Khano Smith, Chris Herd Jamie Clarke Nathan Baker, Aaron Brown, , Dany Hone, Richard Butcher, Chris Fagan, Joe Heath, Sergio Torres.


Valiants

Hotshots
5 Marc Richards
4 Louis Dodds
3 Robert Taylor
2 Tommy Fraser

Assists
4 Tommy Fraser
1 K Taylor, Dodds, Griffith, Loft, R Taylor, Haldane, Yates, Prosser

Card Collectors
Red Cards
1 Tommy Fraser Luke Prosser

Yellows 25
3 Jason Jarrett Sam Stockley Anthony Griffith
2 Marc Richards, Gareth Owen, Louis Dodds, Robert Taylor, Tommy Fraser, Doug Loft
1 Luke Prosser, Damian McCrory, John McCombe, Lee Collins

Financials

Imps
Highest Gate 5527 Notts County
Lowest Gate 3005 Darlington
Average Attendance 3870
Total Turnstile Clicks 34833

Valiants
Highest Gate 6158 Rochdale
Lowest Gate 3996 Torquay United
Average Attendance 4914
Total Turnstile Clicks 44230


Historic Head-to-Head V Port Vale.

Total P 85 W 33 D 23 L 29 F 120 A 112
Home P 41 W 22 D 10 L 9 F 72 A 36
Away P 44 W 11 D 13 L 20 F 48 A 76

Highs & Lows

Highest Gates
27/12/1937 1-0 13,354 Div 3N
26/12/1968 0-1 12,208 Div 4
Lowest Gate
12/03/1966 0-1 2,238 Div 4
Biggest Win at Bank
4-0 Div 2 22/8/56
1 Mitchell Downie 2 Doug Graham 3 Harold Troops
4 Fred Middleton 5 Tony Emery 6 Dick Neal
7 Jimmy Munro 8 Colin Gibson 9 Tommy Northcott
10 Tommy Bannan 11 Alan Withers
Scorers
Alan Withers 2 Tommy Bannan Colin Gibson


Imps Hotshots V Port Vale
6 William Watson
4 Jimmy Frettingham
3 John Thomas Frank Smallman Freddy Simpson Slotch Shaw
William A Robinson Thomas McInnes Jimmy Hartley
Mick Harford Tony Cunningham Tommy Bannan


Record Appearance Holders V Port Vale
12 William McMillan
11 George Fraser