Lincoln City seal 65-year Championship first after epic unbeaten run earns promotion

Lincoln City have sealed promotion to the second tier of English football for the first time since 1961 thanks to a 2-1 win at Reading.

A point was enough for the Imps to confirm their place in the Championship next season, with Ryan Oné giving Lincoln the lead on five minutes.

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The Sheffield United loanee, whose 88th-minute winner against Wimbledon on Good Friday had put Lincoln on the brink, was handed a start at Reading and duly rewarded his manager’s faith.

Reading equalised in the second minute of stoppage-time through Lewis Wing but Lincoln retook the lead through Jack Moylan’s goal in the sixth minute of stoppage-time to secure their promotion in style as they now sit 19 points clear of third-placed Bradford City with five games to go.

It completes the most remarkable of football fairy tales for a club already playing at one of the smallest League One venues.

The 10,669-capacity LNER Stadium, which has been their home since 1895, will be the outright smallest in the Championship.

Lincoln were waning in the bowels of non-league as recently as 2017, the same year they faced Arsenal in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

Yet on the same Easter weekend that Mikel Arteta’s side crashed out of the competition’s last-eight, the Imps have been singing about the possibility of playing the Gunners’ rivals Tottenham at the same level after negating a trip to Wembley for a different reason.

The victory against Reading confirmed Michael Skubala’s men’s place in the Championship without needing the playoffs.

Longest EFL unbeaten run as Lincoln City earn promotion

The 1-0 win also extended the EFL’s current longest unbeaten run to 24 matches, having already broken Lincoln’s own club record.

Their haul is double the total from the next best team across all four divisions – ironically held by future Championship rivals Southampton.

Lincoln can still snatch the record for League One’s longest-ever unbeaten run in a single season before leaving the third tier.

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The East Midlands outfit have now entered the top three all-time, and are four matches from equalling Luton Town’s 2018/19 side.

When did Lincoln City last lose?

Lincoln are the only EFL club yet to taste defeat in the league in 2026, having last failed to earn at least a point 135 days ago in November when they were beaten 3-2 away to Wycombe Wanderers.

It was the most recent of five losses for Skubala’s side inside their first 17 matches that left the club in third, one point behind then-leaders Cardiff City despite playing twice more than the Bluebirds.

Lincoln went on to win 19 of their next 24 fixtures, drawing only five, without losing once to run away with the League One title race.

Only Cardiff can theoretically deny them the trophy should they win all their remaining games to finish on a total of 98 points.

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But following the win over Reading, Lincoln can guarantee the title with two wins and two draws (or three victories) from their last five games.

EFL writer Ben Fisher admitted he certainly did not have Lincoln top of the pile when doing his predictions for League One last summer.

He said on talkSPORT’s Warm Up on Sunday: “I think for a while now, they’ve been kind of impressive, and people have sort of been applauding from afar the way they do their business, but they’ve got a bottom-half budget, sort of 16th, 17th in the division.

“As whenever you talk to clubs, usually wage bills kind of dictate ultimately where teams finish more often than not.

“And Lincoln are defying the odds. Remarkable job by Michael Skubala. Liam Scully, the CEO, says they’re a club not into the shiny things, which I think is quite nice.

They’re top of all the stats. Set pieces as well, a massive thing.

“No one has scored more set pieces than them in the pyramid, seven more than Arsenal. So yes, another set piece FC to a degree.”