International Duty

That’s right, City are in Wales this weekend to face the daunting prospect of trying to extract something from their trip to the principality with a visit to Wrexham. The Imps will be buoyed by the point gained at Mansfield Town. Every little helps but it’s worth pointing out that all is not that well at Mansfield these days and Wrexham will present a considerably tougher prospect. Talking to not exactly a Stags fan but certainly a football follower, Forest fan actually, with his ear to the tracks in Notts it’s hard to fathom who is the least popular with his fans, David Holdsworth or Mansfield’s Paul Cox at the moment.


Not to get too bogged down with football politics it’s been another strange old week in Impdom with the team, for my money, playing Luton off the park, at least for spells only to get struck down by that all too familiar current problem or problems rather; inability to score and individual mistakes. Both traits are acknowledged by the manager but the fans are looking to the gaffer to put these things right. So far he has not displayed an ability to do so but we live in hope.

There are some bright points starting with keeper Paul Farman which may seem a bit strange in the week when said keeper got Luton off to a flyer palming the ball in the net but such indiscretions are very few and far between with Farman and he more than redeemed himself with his display at Mansfield. It’s worth remembering that the much vaunted Rob Burch had a red face on more than one occasion and the sainted Alan Marriott was not invulnerable. He wouldn’t be playing at the level he is if that were the case.

Other plus points, for me, are Andrew Boyce, again maybe not his most sparkling performance against the Hatters but I really like watching this player, and Tom Miller. We’ve also got Peter Gilbert for a few games and I like the cut of his jib too. All defenders you’ll note, we’re having to wait to make any judgements on the strike force but it would be remiss not to mention Jamie Taylor, a player who quite literally gets us out of our seats.

Right, that’s cheered ourselves up, back to earth with a bump as we consider the prospects for points to lift us out of the bottom four and it’s difficult to be too optimistic although stranger things have happened. A look at the league table tells us everything we need to know. Wrexham second, City fourth from the wrong end. Now if that isn’t tempting providence I don’t know what is.