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It is almost like an actor refusing to say “Macbeth” for fear of jinxing the play. Even though Lincoln City’s promotion to the EFL Championship is nigh on certain – “it feels a bit like we’re on match point,” Michael Skubala said after Friday’s 1-0 victory over AFC Wimbledon – no one involved dares mention the prospect of Tottenham or Wolves playing a league game at Sincil Bank next season.
Extending their club-record unbeaten run to 24 league games at Reading on Monday would guarantee Lincoln’s return to the second tier of English football for the first time in 65 years. A draw between Bolton and Stockport would also suffice.
So impressively have Lincoln overachieved under the innovative Skubala this season, building on a decade of steady progress since becoming the first non-league club in 103 years to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals in 2017, it is tempting to wonder whether they have unearthed a formula that could allow them to be competitive in the Championship next season. After all, with the 17th biggest budget in League One, Lincoln are already defying the odds.
For now, even facing Spurs, or Nottingham Forest, in a league game sounds implausible. “No, no, no, it’s not for me to dream,” Skubala says. “That’s for the fans. For me, it’s to keep focused, keep the group focused, keep the staff focused, which we are. We’re humble, we’re hard working – and it sounds great. [But] we just want to win the next game, honestly.”
Liam Scully, the chief executive who helped appoint the former Loughborough University and England Futsal coach in November 2023, is similarly unfazed by the challenging glories should Lincoln go up. “That’s not really us,” he says. “We’re not into the shiny things. We are who we are, whoever our opponents may be. We respect that we’d be facing three teams coming down from the Premier League, and it’d definitely be nice for the fans. But ultimately it’s a green rectangle, 22 blokes, goals at either end and we’re happy to compete.”
Lincoln spent six years out of the Football League until the Cowley brothers helped them win the National League title in the same 2016-2017 season they beat Premier League Burnley and faced Arsenal in the FA Cup. That was when Scully took over as chief executive and the year before Clive Nates became chair. They have made so many good decisions since, the club’s fans are almost discombobulated.
The £1.3m raised by that FA Cup run financed their impressive Elite Performance Centre, which has helped attract quality loan players. Tom, 25, from Lincoln, recalls Brennan Johnson and Morgan Rogers starring in the Michael Appleton team that reached the 2021 League One playoff final.
But it is the lows that are heightening the current highs. “I remember watching us losing at home to North Ferriby in the FA Trophy, and only avoiding relegation to the National League North by beating Hyde United on the last day,” Tom says, his ticket booked for Reading. “So to be where we are now, so far exceeding all expectations, is incredible.”
While results elsewhere meant the promotion party would have had to wait in any case, “there were some tired legs” against Wimbledon, Skubala admitted, before Ryan Oné scrambled home a late winner from one yard that VAR would probably have ruled out for a handball assist.
Lincoln are such an innovative club, while keeping in touch with their roots and supporters, that they have their own chief growth and innovation officer, Jason Futers, and an innovation lab. From pre-season paddleboarding, to coaches working with the nearby Red Arrows RAF display team, the American investor Ron Fowler’s accession to chair in February has not altered the club’s philosophy that everyone helps “make the boat go faster”.
Even substituted players sprinted off the field on Friday, team unity coming before egos. But the key to their sustainable progress is being “boringly consistent”, says Scully. “I’m not sure there’s a personality change [required], to go from League One to the Championship. We’d still be us.”
Skubala, who was a Premier League manager for all of 15 days when he took interim charge at Leeds in February 2023, is contracted until 2028. He has been linked with Leicester, from where he hails and with whom Lincoln may be trading places next season, but what he has at Lincoln is rare.
“It’s corny,” Scully says, “but when we talk about us, Michael is us; he gets us. There’s a natural fit. We’ve always been aligned. This effort takes a village but every ship needs a captain. Michael’s done a phenomenal job.”
Along with work ethic and finding a way to win, alignment throughout the club is one of three principles Skubala most values. “It sounds stupid, but not all clubs are aligned in everything they want to do. And it shows you can overachieve. We’ve got great players and we’re competitive every time we go out on the pitch – and we train like that every day.”
Skubala, who has players with the talent to thrive at a higher level, such as Conor McGrandles, Jack Moylan and Reeco Hackett, says this season is a contender for Lincoln’s finest. “When you look at the size of the club, the resources at this level, what the group’s done on the run, I’m not sure, if we do get there, it’d be easy to replicate a season like this again. So you have to be proud of that as a group and you have to be proud of that as a club.”
