Lincoln City head coach Michael Skubala has insisted the club will now be pushing for the League One title after a historic victory at Reading secured promotion.
The Imps will play second-tier football for the first time since 1961 next season, having beaten Reading 2-1 at the Select Car Leasing Stadium yesterday. With five games to play, City have a 12-point lead over Cardiff, and know two wins should be enough to secure the title.
If we were to win the title, we’d be the first club to go from the National League to the Championship by winning every division, rather than coming second or winning the play-offs.
While that will be a focus, in a truly un-Michael-like manner, he admitted to one job being done, and the players enjoying it for a day or two.
“They’re going to enjoy the moment because in football you need to,” said Michael.
“We’ll have a beer, we’ll have a drink tonight. I’ll give them the day off tomorrow. Maybe Wednesday, we’ll see. But then Thursday we’ll go back into work because this is a group of players who want to go and do the second challenge.”
The first challenge was surely the biggest, taking a side 18th in the budget table in August, 17th in January, to the top of the pile. Of course, budgets play a part, but if there was a table showing character, application, hard work and the like, we’d be top of it. Maybe there is, maybe it’s the ‘League one table’, and if that is the case, then the second challenge should be easier.
“The first challenge was, can we get promoted? That’s done,” he added. “Now, can we do the second challenge and go and push for the league title, which will be another opportunity that not many players, staff, clubs have the opportunity to do.
“We’ve put ourselves in an amazing position to be able to go and do that. We’ll definitely celebrate this when the season’s over, and we’ll enjoy everything more, but we still want to go and get the job done.”
That job starts with Leyton Orient at the Bank this weekend, a little twist of irony given that they were the last visitors to the same venue in the old Second Division in 1961. On that occasion, City won 2-0, and the same result this weekend would edge us closer to our third title in nine years, and our fourth trophy in the same period.
You must be logged in to post a comment.