Imperious Imps: Why Lincoln's League One Promotion is More Impressive Than Wrexham's

Forget Wrexham – This EFL Sides Imp-pressive Rise Should be Hollywood’s Next Big Story

For a while, and understandably so, Wrexham were the sweethearts of English football. After all, three successive promotions, and potentially a fourth this season, are not an everyday occurrence; certainly, the Welsh side deserved its fair share of recognition.

But being honest, it shouldn’t have come as a shock to anybody – with Hollywood owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds bankrolling the club with their box office riches, there was very little chance of the project failing, and while yes, their rise has been more meteoric than most expected, very few expected them to remain outside the EFL, with promotion to the Championship only a matter of time away.

The same, however, could not be said of the EFL’s first officially promoted team of the 2025/26 season. With their stoppage-time win over Reading on Monday, Lincoln sealed their place in England’s second tier next season, having been sat below that level since relegation from the Championship in 1961.

🥹 65 YEARS IN THE MAKING!

🤩 City are back in the @SkyBetChamp!

⌚️ FT | 👑 1-2 🔴 pic.twitter.com/W1vyo494bF

— Lincoln City FC 🇺🇦 (@LincolnCity_FC) April 6, 2026

This is a remarkable achievement in itself, but considering that the club was loitering in the National League as recently as 2016/17 and does not have access to the same funds as the likes of Wrexham, their promotion to the Championship has become the Hollywood story that everyone should actually be paying attention to.

Upward Trend

Sealed with a 96th-minute winner on Monday, Lincoln’s promotion had been a long time coming; in truth, they had been touted for the title ever since grabbing top spot for the first time all the way back in November.

Their sealed promotion was a surprise simply because of the way the club operates – between their stature, wage bill and ownership, upward progression away from League One had a slim chance at best and certainly shouldn’t have been sealed with five games left to play.

Momentum was, of course, on their side after managing two promotions since 2017, but a six-year period of stagnation in England’s third tier suggested that the Imps had reached their ceiling.

A seventh-placed finish last campaign suggested they were still more than capable of mounting an assault on a Championship promotion spot, but the fact that this campaign they boasted the seventh smallest budget in the EFL was not exactly cause for optimism.

However, there were some aspects of Lincoln’s progression that were being kept quiet behind the scenes, the most important of which was their new £1.7 million, funded by a cup run that ended before the Imps had even left the National League.

Led by current Colchester manager Danny Cowley and his brother Nicky as assistant, Lincoln embarked on a fairytale run to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, slaying Ipswich, Brighton and Burnley in the process. This run to the latter stages of the competition earned the club a huge windfall which, responsibly, was put towards facility development over player recruitment, ensuring better long-term development for any of the club's future players.

Lincoln manager Danny Cowley:

📅 May 2016: Working as a PE teacher
📅 Feb 2017: Reaches FA Cup quarter-finals

The Magic of the Cup. 😳👏 pic.twitter.com/cCEB9JMpHS

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Footballtweet) February 20, 2017

Long-Term Progress Over Short-Term Success

This FA Cup run was combined with promotion from the National League and a run to the semi-finals of the EFL Trophy, so naturally, the club had masses of cash to invest. Just a year later, their training facility was complete, and the effects of having a modern, state-of-the-art facility immediately became clear.

It coincided with their second promotion in three years, leading the Imps up to League One for the first time since 1999, and it wasn’t by sheer luck either – they lifted the title and, the next season, managed a more than respectable 16th place finish, a message that they could, and indeed would, establish themselves as a League Two side.

It is hard to emphasise enough just how important that 2016/17 cup run was, as, without it, Lincoln would have had significantly less cash to invest, even with their inevitable promotion. Danny Cowley himself has credited that FA Cup campaign as the starting point for Lincoln’s upward trend, despite leaving the club all the way back in 2019, just three months after promotion to League One.

With subsequent coaches, the club had mixed success – Michael Appleton led them to the play-offs in 2020/21 but, after a failed promotion campaign, led them to 17th the next campaign, while Mark Kennedy placed them consistently around mid-table, solid but unspectacular.

He's been linked with every Championship vacancy for the last 18 months - Michael Skubala is finally now a Championship manager. 🍾

What a job he's done with Lincoln. 👏 #lcfc #imps pic.twitter.com/lTN87Wn1pX

— Championship Terrace Talk (@ChampionshpTalk) April 6, 2026

Then, in November 2023, in came Michael Skubala, who added a little extra something. Ending 2023/24 in seventh and 2024/25 in 11th, he was clearly more than capable of making Lincoln into a top-half side, and it was thought by many that he was the man to recognise the Imps' dream of reaching the Championship once again.

At the start of last season arguably came the critical point, the moment where their journey towards the top of English football got a huge boost: Skubala started to focus on set-pieces.

His side took to dead-ball scenarios like ducks to water and, since the beginning of the 2024/25 campaign, have scored 56 goals from set pieces, be it from corners, direct or indirect free kicks, or penalties – some have even labelled them as the Arsenal of the EFL, a fair comparison, as the Gunners boast 25 set-piece goals in all competitions this season alone.

Exponentially Upward

This set-piece-heavy focus is an extremely useful tactic at any level, one which, despite heavy criticism, Arsenal have used to their advantage – so many sides at the highest level underestimate how effective set pieces can be and so frequently catch opponents off guard.

In the EFL, sides are much more accustomed to defending long throws, corner balls and free kicks, and so Skubala has been forced to get creative. He has done so superbly, with ghost runs, fake jumpers and a wasps' nest of aerial targets, meaning a goal is more likely than not.

The set-piece focus has also resulted in a wide range of goal scorers – in the league, lead scorer Jack Moylan has just nine to his name, while 11 teammates boast three or more. This widespread range of goals just further embodies the team effort it took for the Imps to get here.

In the Championship, it is inevitable that some things may need to change - sides grow a lot more reliant on star individuals the higher up the leagues you venture, while simply scoring through set-pieces will not keep them safe by itself.

Lincoln now have five games remaining in League One to strategise – don't be surprised to see experimental lineups, different attacking strategies, and veteran players start to be phased out of the starting XI, as with Championship football around the corner for the first time in more than half a century, there is no such thing as a dead rubber.

🚨🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 For the first time in 65 YEARS, Lincoln City have been promoted to the 2nd division of English football. ✅

They have done this with one of the lowest budgets in their league! Respect. 👏 pic.twitter.com/JmhlsP7CtB

— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) April 6, 2026

However, while there is plenty of business to attend to, there also needs to be no shortage of recognition and celebration of their achievement. Lincoln City illustrate just how important clever investment, savvy strategies and consistency in the dugout can be to a side most of the way down the EFL pyramid, and unlike Wrexham, they had to wrestle their way back up through competitive success and diligent planning alone.

Wrexham are on the brink of securing a play-off spot, and should they manage to win the richest game in football at Wembley Stadium just over a month from now, they will extend their record as the only side to register four promotions in as many seasons.

It is safe to say that Lincoln fans should temper their expectations a little – without the Hollywood funds, TV deals and countless investors, they will be in a more precarious financial situation than their feel-good predecessors.

But make no mistake, the Imps are only in the Championship because they deserve to be, and though some tweaks and changes will be needed in places, they cannot be underestimated – any side too good for League One is a danger to anyone.