Lincoln City are on the verge of promotion from League One to the Championship, capping off one of the most remarkable rises in English football. As Michael Skubala’s side close in on history, fans must realise they are living the good old days right now.
It’s been said that it would be great to know you were in the good old days before it’s too late, and all you can do is look back at them. When you’re at school, all you can do is look forward to growing up, thinking the life you have is grossly unfair and that grown-ups make decisions purely to spite you.
When, in fact, the lack of responsibility and the time with your friends is the best bit. Not to mention the ability to watch every single World Cup or European Championship game, whether your parents like it or not. Settling down to watch Wimbledon take on Crystal Palace simply because you can. Halcyon days!
Why Lincoln City Fans Must Enjoy This Moment
Then comes the much sought-after adulthood, and you find yourselves telling those who’ll listen exactly what you were told as a child – enjoy it, these are the best days.
The same must be said for the world of football fandom. While the big clubs ‘suffer’ from failing to qualify for the Champions League, those at the other end of the pyramid have to grasp every moment they can.
Clubs like Scunthorpe United and Stockport County have experienced second-tier football and sixth-tier football since the turn of the century.
How County fans will have wished they enjoyed Brett Angell and the team that finished 8th in the then Division 1 a little more when they were travelling to Leamington and Curzon Ashton (no disrespect to those great non league clubs).
Fans of the Iron will have harked back to the days of Gary Hooper and co as they were unsuccessfully chasing down Tamworth for promotion back to the Conference in 2024.
There are countless examples of the rollercoaster ride that football provides for fans and clubs. One club living the absolute dream at present are Lincoln City. The Imps have gone from 13th in the National League in 2016 to promotion contenders in League One in under a decade.
Lincoln City’s Remarkable Rise To The Championship
This coming May, it’ll be ten years since the Imps finished 13th in the Conference on 61 points behind the likes of Dover Athletic and Woking. Now, City are within touching distance of Championship football after a truly remarkable decade.
Fans of the club will look back on this period with immense fondness, telling stories of matches and characters from ‘back in the day’ much like those who grew up watching Graham Taylor’s record breakers did.
On the final day of that 2015-16 campaign, the Imps lost to champions Cheltenham to confirm yet another bottom-half finish in the fifth tier of English football.
At that time, fans had no idea what was about to happen to their club. A South African businessman with a desire to run an English football club and two PE teachers were about to change the club forever.
Throughout the Cowley reign, City fans rode that wave of optimism right from the depths of the Conference into League One, with two titles and a cup win at Wembley all thrown in. The crowds came back, they jigged on the terraces to Kungs vs Cookin’ on 3 Burners, and the city fell in love with its football team again.
Crowds flocked to North Ferriby, Solihull Moors and, to top it all off, the Emirates as history was made. It was a time to savour, to drink it in and realise how fortunate fans were to be witnessing this after years in the doldrums.
The club’s sensible, well-thought-out approach to future planning has led them to this point. A point where they are on the brink of what most would have previously classed as the unthinkable – Championship football. Not only will they achieve this almost ten years to the day from finishing 13th in the Conference, but the Imps are still on course to reach 100 points and win the title in style.
What Next For Lincoln City?
Supporters will enjoy the next few weeks, firstly when promotion is officially confirmed and then a potential title to go with it, but they must continue to enjoy the moments and make memories to share with future generations.
Next season may be challenging. The Imps may well lose more than they win. They may well be in a relegation scrap towards the bottom of the division, but these are special times.
Michael Skubala has put together a squad that fans can be proud of, a group of players who don’t know when they are beaten and give everything they have for the mischievous supernatural being on the front of their shirts.
They will be going toe to toe, in league encounters and not via cup draws, with sides like Sheffield United and Norwich City, plus potential clashes with Leicester City, Blackburn Rovers and even Tottenham. Fans must embrace these games, enjoy their away trips and make the LNER Stadium a hostile place to visit.
Whatever the the results, get behind Michael Skubala, the staff and the players and if things seem tough remember this – ten years ago, City were dumped out of the FA Cup in the first round by Whitehawk but won’t even enter next season’s competition until the same round as Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and all of the other big hitters in English football.
Lincoln City’s rise from non-league to the brink of the Championship is one of the greatest stories in modern English football—and fans must embrace every moment of this promotion push.
What a rise, what a story, and it’s not over yet.