[Lord Snooty]

Lincoln City v Huddersfield Town
Sky Bet League One
Thursday January 1st - 15:00 ko
at the LNER Stadium

Huddersfield Town travel to Lincoln to Sincil Bank on Thursday afternoon for a game of football.

Will it be a happy start to the new year for the Terriers or will it be a shocking hangover from all that Christmas points gathering? Critics have suggested that our last three opponents have been poor and that Lee Grant won't be taken seriously until he beats one of the top sides in the division and currently standing second in the League One table makes the Imps appear to be one of those.

However, we have beaten them already this season in the Vertu Trophy and they looked anything but a good team as our second choice players beat them comprehensively.

Town don't seem to have any new injuries to worry about, but after opening the scoring against Northampton Town on Monday night, Joe Low was withdrawn at half time with Grant saying it was just precautionary after the defender had complained about a niggle.

Despite getting well and truly turned over by Town at the London and North Eastern Railway Stadium in the Trophy, Lincoln have a more than decent record at Sincil Bank, winning eight out of their eleven matches this season and losing only one. That one defeat was inflicted by Exeter City back in October.

With critics saying that Town have beaten nobody of any consequence, Lincoln have beaten Stockport County and Cardiff City over the festive period, as well as a 2-0 win at Barnsley on Monday.

Two teams in good form. Should be a crackerjack with lots of fireworks!

All images used in this thread are form Wikipedia.





A brief history of Lincoln City: formed in 1884 and nicknamed the Imps after a grotesque on a wall inside Lincoln Cathedral. They played at John O'Gaunts at first but moved into Sincil Bank in 1895 and have been there ever since. This was after they had been founder members of the Football League Second Division in 1892, where they stayed until 1908 when they failed to get re-elected.

They did get re-elected again, but then got elected out again before becoming founder members of the Football League's new Third Division (North) in 1921. They won Div 3(N) three times and spent nine seasons in the 1950s in Division Two, their most succesful spell. But that was followed by two succesive relegations and they dropped to Division 4 for the first time and stayed there for the next 14 years.

They went up with a record points total under the management of Graham Taylor, who would leave soon after to go do similar at Watford.

In the mid 80s, the Football League voted to give an automatic promotion place to a team from the newly formed Football Conference (now National League) with the first team promoted in 1987 being Scarborough under the management of local chiropodist Neil Warnock. Finishing bottom of the 4th Division and therefore the first team to be automatically relegated from the league were Lincoln City. Not without controversy though.

It was down to either the Imps or Torquay United on the final day. At Plainmoor, with Torquay 2-1 down against Crewe Alexandra, one of the Torquay players got bitten by a police dog, which led to a lot of injury time. Lincoln's game at Swansea had finished with a 2-0 defeat for the Imps but the as it stands table was still keeping them up. In the added on time though, with the Lincoln players and fans huddled around their transistor radios, Torquay scored the goal that saved them and doomed Lincoln to life outside of the Football League.

It didn't last long as they bounced straight back up again. They went up again in 1998, but came straight back down again. That was followed by five consecutive seasons of qualifying for the Play Offs, all of which they failed in.......

• 2002/03: Finishing 6th, they beat Scunthorpe United in the semi-finals, but lost the final against AFC Bournemouth in Cardiff.
  
  
• 2003/04: Finishing 7th, they were defeated by the mighty Huddersfield Town in the semi-finals.
  
  
• 2004/05: Finishing 6th, they again reached the final at the Millennium Stadium, losing 2-0 to Southend United.
  
  
• 2005/06: A 7th place finish led to a semi-final defeat against Grimsby Town.
  
  
• 2006/07: Finishing 5th, they were beaten in the semi-finals by Bristol Rovers (4-8 on aggregate).
  

The failure turned into a demise and by the end of 2010/11 they were dumped once more into the Conference. But then in May 2016, they took on a couple of school teachers, the brothers Danny and Nicky Cowley, whose legacy has put the club into the healthy position it still enjoys today.

They were only there for three seasons, before leaving to join Huddersfield Town in the Championship, but what a three seasons they were for Imps fans.

• 2016-17 (National League Champions & FA Cup Quarter-Finalists): In their first season, as a non-league side, the Cowleys led Lincoln to the National League title, securing promotion back to the EFL after a six-year absence. They also had an FA Cup run, becoming the first non-league team in over a century to reach the quarter-finals by defeating Ipswich Town, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Premier League side Burnley, before losing to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
  
  
• 2017-18 (EFL Trophy Winners & League Two Play-offs): In their first season back in the EFL, the Imps finished seventh in League Two, qualifying for the play-offs. They got beat at the semi final stage by Exeter City. They also won the club's first-ever major trophy by winning the EFL Checkatrade Trophy at Wembley, beating Shrewsbury Town 1-0 in the final, with a goal from Elliott Whitehouse.
  
  
• 2018-19 (League Two Champions): The success continued as the Cowleys guided the Imps to the League Two title, returning the club to the third tier of English football for the first time since 1999.
  

In the season after the Cowleys left, they ended the season back at Wembley in the Play Off Final, with Michael Appleton in charge. They had beaten slumbering giant Sunderland 3-2 on aggregate in the semis, before lining up against Blackpool at the national stadium. And they got off to a brilliant start when Ollie Turton, in his last game before moving to Huddersfield Town, put the ball into his own net in the first minute. But two goals from Kenny Dougall won the match for the Tangerines 2-1.

Since then they've had top half finishes in the League One table, but no more Play Offs.



Head to Head



Town lead the head to head with 16 wins to Lincoln's 15, with 12 draws.

The teams first met way back in our first season in the Football League. On the 27th of December away at Sincil Bank it ended in a two all draw with Henry Hamilton scoring both of ours. The return fixture was also drawn, this time one all with James Richardson scoring. Those weren't the first games though. We'd met earlier on that season in the FA Cup 4th qualifying round which the Imps won after a replay.

In more recent times though, not many league games. Last season was only the second season we had been in the same division in this century. The biggest match was in this century though and that was of course the Play Offs semi final for 2003/04 in the 4th tier.

The league meetings had gone with home wins for each team. Gary Taylor-Fletcher was among the Lincoln scorers as they beat us 3-1 over there and then Efe Sodje and Pawel Abbott scored in a 2-1 win at the McAlpine.

The Terriers finished the season in 4th place, seven points ahead of the Imps and so the first leg of the Play Offs took place at Sincil Bank. Town took an early lead. It looked like Rob Edwards had scored direct from a corner, but Iffy Onuora, who had only just been brought back to the club by his old mate and now Town manager, Peter Jackson, claimed that he had got a glancing header and was given the goal. Taylor-Fletcher equalised, but then David Mirfin scored to give us a first leg lead.

The second leg didn't go to plan, unless the plan was to go behind on aggregate before half time. Two goals in two minutes just before the break from Richard Butcher and Mark Bailey got us all in a tizz again. Nowadays, the team would've been booed off after such a let down, but Town fans were made of sterner stuff back then and instead got behind the lads and roared them on to victory.

First of all, in the 60th minute Andy Booth had his heels clipped in the penalty area and hit the deck. This was spotted by the referee, unlike modern day refs who are under instruction not to give us anything, and Danny Schofield equalised from the spot kick. Three sides of the McAlpine Stadium went wild in the 83rd minute when after the ball went through a tangle of legs, it eventually fell to Rob Edwards who slammed it home and we managed to hold on without any more cock ups.

We then of course, went to Cardiff, beat Mansfield and won promotion.

Since then, they beat us in the League Cup in 2019, 1-0 with a goal from Harry Anderson. We drew 2-2 at the John Smith's last season, with Callum Marshall getting a late equaliser, then lost 1-0 at theirs on April Fools Day. And finally, earlier this season, we tonked them 2-0 in the Trophy, with Joe Taylor and Murray Wallace on target.






Lincoln manager profile: Michael Skubala: Having stumbled upon success by appointing two PE teachers in the Cowley brothers, the Lincoln board decided to copy the idea by appointing another one in Skubala, who used to be a PE teacher at Lutterworth College. His coaching philosophy sounds similar to that of Lee Grant as in he's data driven with a focus on player development.

During his time at Lutterworth, he also held academy coaching roles at Coventry City and Nottingham Forest and was an assistant manager at non-league club Barwell. He became the director of football at Loughborough University before being headhunted by the FA.

Skubala also served as the head coach of the England national futsal team, leading them to their highest world ranking in two decades between 2017 and 2020. Futsal? What's that? A gloryfied version of five-a-side football.

In July 2022, Skubala was appointed head coach of the Leeds United U21s. In February 2023, following the sacking of Jesse Marsch, he was named the interim head coach for the senior team, taking charge of three Premier League matches. His short stint included a notable 2-2 draw against Manchester United at Old Trafford. After Javi Gracia was appointed permanent manager, Skubala transitioned to a first-team coach role.

Skubala was appointed manager of Lincoln City in November 2023, following the sacking of Mark Kennedy. Since then he has been in charge of over a hundred games and has a win percentage of around 45%.

Club connections:

Lasse Sørensen, Sean Roughan and Joe Taylor from the current Town squad are all ex Lincoln players, leading the Imps fans to think that they have become a feeder club for the more illustrious club in West Yorkshire.

The best one that we stole off them came with the Cowleys and that was of course, Harry Toffolo. He'd started his career with Norwich City, but was sent out on many loans before making his breakthrough at Sincil Bank. He made 72 appearances for them, winning the League Two title and a place in the PFA team of the year.

At Leeds Road he made 99 appearances scoring 9 goals. He was just about to tap home his 10th goal, against Nottingham Forest at Wembley in the Championship Play Off Final in 2022, when instead of rolling the ball past the goalkeeper, he inexplicably took a dive for which he received a yellow card. What a strange thing to do!

Even stranger was him then joining Forest almost as the final whistle blew. Had he been already tapped up or was it just a corrupt referee denying us a clear cut penalty? I suppose we'll never know.

He made 57 appearances for the Florist in three seasons before his release in the summer. At which point, he headed over to America where he now plays for Charlotte FC in the MLS.

Lincoln in popular culture:

Tim Hart, one of the founder members of Steeleye Span was born in Lincoln in 1948.

All Around My Hat - Steeleye Span on YouTube

The pop/rock band The Casuals from Lincoln achieved commercial success in the late 1960s. Their single "Jesamine" reached number 2 on the charts in 1968.

Jesamine - The Casuals on YouTube

Recent form - last 6 matches:

Town 2-0 Northampton
Town 5-0 Port Vale
Rotherham 1-3 Town
Town 1-1 Wigan
Northampton 1-1 Town
Cardiff 3-2 Town

Barnsley 0-2 Lincoln
Stockport 1-2 Lincoln
Lincoln 2-1 Cardiff
Blackpool 2-2 Lincoln
Lincoln 3-1 Barnsley
Lincoln 0-2 Town (EFL Trophy)

Town are 5th in the League One table with 37 points. Lincoln are 2nd with 44.


Leading scorers (all comps):

Terriers:
Leo Castledine (11)
Joe Taylor (7)
Bojan Radulović (7)

Imps:
James Collins (6)
Reeco Hackett-Fairchild (6)




Anagrams 2025: All to do with Huddersfield Town over the last 12 months.

1. John In Grot Town
   
2. Hulls Calm Alarm
   
3. Ravi Could Banjo
   
4. Audi Scum Cat
   
5. Ely Mafia
   
6. Liam Chuffed
   
7. Edmond Quiz Opener
   
8. Elvis Wall
   
9. Adolescent Eli
   
10. Lent Rage