History of Lincoln City F.C.
Their first competitive game at home also ended in an emphatic manner, beating Boston Excelsior 11–0, with Edwin Teesdale scoring four goals.
The first game at Sincil Bank in 1895, after moving from the John O'Gaunts Ground due to Dawber's death, was a 0–0 friendly draw with local rivals, Gainsborough Trinity.
They regained their Football League place automatically via promotion as champions of the Conference (beforehand it was done by re-election) at the first attempt with a long ball game devised by eccentric manager Colin Murphy and held on to it until the end of season 2010–11.
On 8 September 1990, Lincoln were the opposition when David Longhurst suffered a fatal heart attack during the first half of a game against York City at Bootham Crescent.
With Lincoln entering administration at the end of the 2001–02 season, Alan Buckley was relieved of his duties as manager on financial grounds[6] with Keith Alexander placed in charge of all football matters.
On 3 May 2002 Lincoln successfully petitioned to go into administration[7] but the financial crisis would leave the first team squad bereft of players as the day saw five senior players – Jason Barnett, Grant Brown, David Cameron, Steve Holmes and Justin Walker – released at the end of their contracts[8] with a sixth, Lee Thorpe, departing for Leyton Orient.
[10] In 2002–03, Alexander was given the task of keeping the team in the football league; he proved the many pundits and fans who believed that Lincoln would be relegated and sent out of business due to financial irregularities wrong.
With a team made up of cheap ex-non-league players and the lower paid members of the previous season's squad, he took them to the play-off final which they lost 5–2 to Bournemouth.
[citation needed] In 2003–04 Alexander again confounded the critics by coaching the Imps to another play-off position, this time losing to eventual winners Huddersfield Town in the semi-finals.
Alexander, one of the very few black managers in the Football League, had a very serious brain injury (a cerebral aneurysm) halfway through the season, but made a full recovery.
In the 2004–05 season they again qualified for the play-offs, for the third year running, and in the semi-finals Lincoln beat Macclesfield Town 2–1 on aggregate over two legs but lost in the final against Southend United 2–0 after extra time.
In the league, Lincoln again reached the play-offs after many fans and critics believed that they would finish in the mid-table after losing many of their first team regulars from the previous three campaigns.
Lincoln were to face local neighbours Grimsby Town in the play-offs, a side they had beaten 5–0 at Sincil Bank earlier in the season.
When John Deehan was the Director of Football, the club enjoyed a close link with Premier League outfit Aston Villa.
[citation needed] The team started the 2007–08 campaign poorly, managing just two wins before a winless streak that lasted from 25 August to 24 November.
[citation needed] On 28 September 2009, the Lincoln hotseat was handed to former Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers, Celtic and England striker Chris Sutton.
Sutton led Lincoln City to the third round of the FA Cup, after beating Northwich Victoria in a second-round game televised live on ITV1.
The tie was played on 2 January 2010 at the Reebok Stadium, with Lincoln losing the game 4–0 and crashing out respectfully to the Premier League side.
After a run of nine losses and a draw in the final ten games, Lincoln City were relegated from League Two on the last day of the end of the 2010–2011 season.
[citation needed] Following relegation to the Conference Premier, Tilson released all but three members of the squad, telling them they had no future at Sincil Bank.
Just before the season ended, Moyses announced that he would leave the club in order to focus on his business interests outside of football, and was subsequently replaced by Braintree Town manager Danny Cowley.
During that run the Imps travelled to run-away leaders Forest Green and would have fallen twelve points behind with a defeat, but three goals in the final 30 minutes turned around a 2–0 deficit.
On 18 February, Lincoln went on to beat top flight side Burnley 1–0 to historically go through to the FA Cup quarter final, the first time a non-league club had progressed to the last eight since 1914.
[14] In the 2017–18 season, on 6 February 2018, Lincoln beat Chelsea U21s in the semi-final of the 2017–18 EFL Trophy, taking them to Wembley Stadium for the first time in the 134 years of the club.
Lincoln began their first season in the third tier in over twenty years with relative success, victorious in their first three games against Accrington Stanley, Rotherham and Southend.
[23] In the 2022–23 EFL Cup, Lincoln equalled a club record performance by reaching the fourth round of the tournament, losing 2–1 to Southampton.
