Lincoln City boss Michael Skubala has targeted the League One title after promotion to the Championship was confirmed on Monday.
City were promoted on Easter Monday after beating Reading 2-1, rubber-stamping a return to the second tier for the first time since 1961. Thus far, both our recent promotions have been as champions, and we’re now targeting a history-making third title win in a row.
That’s a feat that hasn’t been achieved before: three promotions, three titles to go from the fifth tier to the first. It’s a target that the coaching staff have now set for a remarkable group of players.
“Throughout all the season, we’ve set little challenges and targets for the lads, and they just keep knocking them out of the park,” he told Michael Hortin in the pre-match press conference ahead of Leyton Orient.
“Going 19 games is it with a win and 24 unbeaten, with 19 wins is just credit to them and their work ethic. We don’t want it to stop. We’ll have lots of time to celebrate the promotion.
“If we don’t achieve the title and we don’t get promoted, and we don’t achieve 100 points or whatever the next thing is, it’s been an amazing season, but we don’t want to stop here. We want to try to get the title, for sure.”
The League One title seemed a million miles away at the beginning of the season, but with five games to go, it is ours to lose. City are 12 points clear of Cardiff, who have 18 left to play for. With our goal difference being ten better at this stage, two wins and a draw would seal our promotion, whatever the Bluebirds do.
They have an interesting run-in, with Bolton, Huddersfield and Reading their next three matches, while we have Orient, Stevenage and Doncaster as our next three games. There’s no doubt it is in our hands, a testament to the hard work put in over 41 matches.
“We’ve put ourselves in such a good position,” added Michael.
“You speak to any football or any sports person, not very often do you win league titles. It’s a really big thing and a hard thing to win.
“Go up second, go up in playoffs, but actually winning it is few and far between. We have got a few in this building that have done it before and know what it takes. So that’s what we want to do next.”
Can we do it? A win on Saturday could put us on the cusp of history, and if Cardiff do drop off, we could even be confirmed as champions next Tuesday, without playing a game.