Bescot Banter columnist Sam Wright previews Saturday's FA Cup tie with Lincoln City;
After signing a new long term deal this week, Dean Smith takes his out-of-sorts Walsall side to Lincoln on Saturday, as we take on Lincoln City in our first FA Cup tie of the season, let’s hope it’s not our last.
After signing a new long term deal this week, Dean Smith takes his out-of-sorts Walsall side to Lincoln on Saturday, as we take on Lincoln City in our first FA Cup tie of the season, let’s hope it’s not our last.
Lincoln are currently in the Conference Premier, just one tier below the professional leagues, but have traditionally been a league side. You may remember most recently in our League Two championship season where we met them at the Banks’s stadium in a televised league game. However, they are not having much
success of late, they are sitting 19th in the league, just one point off the drop zone. They come into the game off the back of a 3 game unbeaten run, drawing 3-3 with Stockport County in the latest of those. If they are to pull off an upset, they may need top scorer Taylor to build on his 8 league goals already this season.
The Saddlers need to be confident going into this one, even after failing to get a win in the previous 7 games now. We expect Smith will field a strong team, a risky tactic as it would really flatten the side if they were to be beaten by a pretty ordinary non-league outfit. However, we shouldn’t be thinking about losing this one, that’s just what poor form does to you, but see it as a great chance to bag some goals and get the confidence of the team back up, without getting over confident of course.
In total, we have travelled away to play the imps 35 times. We have only managed 7 wins from those but have taken 11 draws, compared to the 17 losses. Of course not too much can be read into this as they were a professional side when we were playing them last, but still, we have won 5 of the last 8 meetings, dating back to 1993, and we will be hoping to make it 6 out of 9 on Saturday. Good luck Walsall, fingers crossed for no upsets.
Prediction: Lincoln City 1 Walsall 3
Our partners at Paddy Power are offering odds of Lincoln 3/1 Draw 12/5 Walsall 5/6
Our partners at Paddy Power are offering odds of Lincoln 3/1 Draw 12/5 Walsall 5/6
By: Sam Wright