Lincoln City are on the verge of being promoted to Division 2 for the first time since 1961.
Under Michael Skbara they were the clear leaders in League One and almost secured promotion on Good Friday.
Bolton and Stockport could theoretically still catch up, but doing so would require an overhaul of their incredible goal difference.
Sky Sports’ Russ Taylor is a lifelong Lincoln City fan and talks about how the rejuvenated Imps, who were not yet in the league in 2017, have transformed…
“Apathy was widespread throughout the city of Lincoln.”
Ten years ago, Lincoln City was coming off an enviable 10-1 National League season.
In reality, not many people were paying attention.
The nation’s attention was glued to events along the A46 as Leicester City became the source of all the shockwaves in the Premier League.
Soccer Saturday’s Russ Taylor is a lifelong Lincoln fan and can regularly be heard celebrating Imps goals in the background of the program.
That apathy spread throughout the city of Lincoln. Attendances were regularly below 2,000 and most people accepted that the football club was likely to cease to be a property of the league for the foreseeable future.
Since being relegated from the Football League in 2011, the club had been aiming for a break from the National League, albeit in the wrong way, but needed a win on the final day against Hyde United to ensure safety and avoid the disgrace of dropping into regional football.
Fans have become accustomed to a revolving door of new signings, seeing the club handed to the likes of Carshalton and Whitehawk, to name a few. Participants in these two matches wear it as a badge of honor.
Rather than prolong the torture further, many could be forgiven for focusing on Saturday’s soccer scores instead.
So why are Lincoln and Tottenham fans singing to each other about playing at the same level?
A South African businessman and two brothers from Essex are turning the tide
It begins with a South African businessman named Clive Nates, fascinated by the British game, joining the board.
“It was the first time I saw them lose 2-0 at home to Welling in a game,” Nates told Sky Sports. “Then we played in Alfreton on Tuesday night with 100 away fans. We drew 0-0. It was freezing cold!”
Within a year, the club traded trips to Alfreton for day trips to Arsenal, led by the two Essex brothers who feature in FA Cup lore.
Danny Cowley and Nicky Cowley kicked Lincoln out of the National League
Danny and Nikki Cowley appear.
The club’s victory over Burnley in the Premier League in the 2017 FA Cup and their place in the quarter-finals, where they lost to Arsenal, was a godsend for the club. And thanks to a £2 million prize, they have been able to build an Elite Performance Center training base alongside another Lincolnshire icon, the Red Arrows, rather than scrounging around in the bushes at their local RAF base.
But most importantly, the Cowley brothers pushed for a return to the Football League in the same season on half the budget of their rival promotion contenders.
A club that had been in the doldrums suddenly became a club backed by the relentless Cowleys. Fans fell in love with Lincoln City again.
Lincoln reached the quarter-finals of the 2017 FA Cup, where they faced non-league club Arsenal at the time.
What is the magic formula?
“Patience,” Nates said. “We give managers time to work on their jobs.”
Following the departure of Cowleys, Michael Appleton arrived and took the club within a game for promotion to the Championship, but they lost 2-1 to Blackpool in front of a sparse crowd at Wembley Stadium, led by players inspired by the loan signings of Brennan Johnson and Morgan Rodgers during the 2021 coronavirus-interrupted season.
Most fans, myself included, thought that this once-in-a-lifetime chance was over.
The Skubala era begins by pushing Lincoln to the next level.
Michael Skbara was instrumental in Lincoln’s promotion and received multiple awards.
Mark Kennedy followed in the dugout, with Lincoln appointing another manager. The manager was Michael Skbara, who trained in the education industry and was part of Leeds United’s coaching staff.
“Under Skbala the club finished seventh and then 11th, but there was no pressure to move up the table. Michael knew he had time,” Nates said.
What he doesn’t have, with all due respect, is the biggest budget. Lincoln operate on a budget that puts them in the bottom eight of League One. But that fact belies the reality of this season.
Lincoln City last lost a league game in November. They have the most wins, the fewest losses, the best defense, and the most goals. The latter statistic is perhaps the epitome of the team’s team ethic. There is no single 20-goal guy leading the Imps offense.
Defensively, the team is built around an experienced back four, led by captain Tendai Darikwa, who captained Wigan to the title in 2021, and is filled with players who have League One ‘know-how’ and have experience of being promoted from League One.
Low possession and high tempo were key to Lincoln’s promotion.
Freddie Draper has scored eight goals for Lincoln this season.
What’s interesting is that Lincoln have the lowest average possession percentage in League One (around 40%), but this doesn’t mean they’re a long-ball team.
Instead, they are set to lure opponents in, win the ball and launch a fast-break attack – utilizing a speedy front line, culminating in the direct running of Irishman Jack Moylan, who has caught the attention of many opposition managers this season.
A powerful weapon is Tom Hamer’s long throws, as well as the club’s set pieces. Rangers even signed Lincoln City set-piece coach Scott Fry at the start of the season. But chances, and most pertinently, goals, kept coming.
So are the fans. Matches at Sincilbank have been selling out for some time, with crowds of over 10,000 people, and more than 10 percent of the city’s population will be crammed into LNER Stadium on match day.
And now the atmosphere is understandably lively, led by fans of 617 Squadron, named after the famous Dambusters from the county.
Children across the county are wearing Lincoln shirts again.
Lincoln may be a relatively small city, but it has big ambitions. Once the world’s tallest building, the cathedral is no longer an unknown location sandwiched between ‘somewhere near Nottingham’.
This is a club that has captured the imagination and hearts of an entire county. A place where players and staff stop at the local supermarket to chat with supporters and learn about their importance and role to the city and its proud people.
What’s really exciting is that there are now more children across the county wearing Lincoln City shirts. My son Rory is two years old and all he knows is being a successful Lincoln City fan. So he was captured!
But much of the fun and excitement of this magical season comes from the struggles the club has endured over countless years.
That’s because there were times in recent history when it looked like the club would be forgotten forever. Generations of Imps fans have grown old without ever having the opportunity to witness what we are witnessing now.
Incidentally, the last time Lincoln City played in the second tier of English football was in 1961. The Beatles hadn’t released their first song yet, and a pre-match pint cost 10p.
In the same 1960/61 season, they hosted Liverpool, who were managed by Bill Shankly. Fast forward 65 years and Imps fans may be about to witness their third league championship in just 10 years.
Evolution, not revolution – the Lincoln City way
What I’m really happy about is that it’s done organically and carefully. It all started with a magical FA Cup run in 2017 that started with a goalless draw at home to Guiseley.
Since then, he has made steady progress both on and off the field and the club is now one step closer to reaching the Premier League.
And the club’s ‘David vs. Goliath’ appeal means it is now inundated with US investment, backed by billionaire chairman Ron Fowler, who turned Major League Baseball into Lincoln City.
This does not deviate from the steady progress the club has made.
“We are sane here and we will continue to be sane,” Fowler says eloquently.
His first plan was to improve the fan experience at the football club, ahead of a potentially big-money deal. Evolution rather than revolution. The Lincoln City Way.
And if I told the 100 or so die-hard Lincoln City fans standing on a windswept Alfreton terrace that in 10 years’ time they’d be playing in the Second Division, the ever-present Nates summed it up neatly: “No chance! Not in a million years. But that’s the magic of the football pyramid.”
As a Lincoln City fan my whole cognitive life, it’s great to be a part of that magic.
