Five years ago today, Lincoln City beat Sunderland 2-0 in the play-offs.
How can that be five years ago? I remember it like it was yesterday, after more than a year of not going to Sincil Bank, it was our first game back. Dad and I were lucky to get tickets, albeit in the corner of the Stacey West, but that feeling of being back was indescribable. The first chant, the first roar from the crowd at a missed chance, brought emotions back that Covid had repressed and buried.
That first goal by Tom Hopper was unreal. I spoke to him a few months later and said his goal against Sunderland stood out for me, and he asked which one. The one at their place made me cry (genuinely, the first time I’d cried at football in a long while), but that one at the Bank reminded me why I have always been addicted to football. Five years. Wow.
I wrote the introduction above, and decided I wanted to relive that evening, so I published the match report again. Brought a bit of a tear to my eye seeing Dad having his first pint in 15 months, but that’s to be expected, I guess. Anyway, I wondered what happened to each of the players from that squad, so here is a rundown of the full team, subs included, and what happened after this game.
21: Joe Bursik
Bursik returned to Stoke City after his one-game emergency loan spell with City and began the 2021-22 season as the club’s first-choice goalkeeper. His progress was interrupted in November 2021 when he suffered a quad injury while away with England Under-21s, allowing Jack Bonham to take over between the posts. He later regained his place towards the end of the campaign as he continued to compete for regular football at Championship level.
In January 2023, he joined Belgian side Club Brugge for an undisclosed fee, but first-team opportunities were limited and most of his appearances came for reserve side Club NXT in the Challenger Pro League. A loan move to Hibernian followed for the 2024-25 season before he returned to England in September 2025, signing permanently for Portsmouth in the Championship, for whom he has appeared nine times.
2: Regan Poole
Poole remained with City for the 2021-22 season and scored his first goal for the club in dramatic fashion, netting a last-minute winner against Charlton Athletic in October 2021. At the end of that campaign, he was named both the Player of the Season and Players’ Player of the Season. He stayed at Sincil Bank for a further year before it was confirmed in May 2023 that he would leave the club after turning down the offer of a new contract in favour of playing for a bigger club to enhance his international prospects.
That move came two months later when he joined Portsmouth, helping Pompey win the League One title during his first season at Fratton Park. His form also brought international recognition, and he made his senior Wales debut in October 2023, starting in a 4-0 friendly victory against Gibraltar. Since arriving on the south coast, Poole has established himself as a regular Championship player, making more than 70 appearances for Portsmouth across League One and the Championship by the end of the 2025-26 season.
5: Adam Jackson
As you know, Jackson remained with the Imps following the 2020-21 campaign and became an experienced figure in the side across the following seasons. Injuries have interrupted parts of his time at Sincil Bank, but he continued to feature regularly in League One and signed a new contract in May 2023 running until the end of the 2024-25 season. After the club triggered an extension clause in 2025, he agreed another new deal in July that tied him to Lincoln until the summer of 2027, with the possibility of a further year based on appearances.
Jackson is the only member of the squad to have remained at the club since the Sunderland game, and by the end of the 2025-26 season, he had made 178 appearances for the Imps across all competitions, scoring five goals.
7: Tayo Edun
Edun left City in August 2021, joining Championship side Blackburn Rovers in a deal reported to be worth around £500,000. He spent two seasons at Ewood Park, making 34 appearances across league and cup competitions, although he struggled to establish himself as a regular starter during his time in the Championship.
In July 2023, he dropped back into League One with Charlton Athletic, signing a two-year deal. After featuring regularly during the 2023-24 campaign, he moved to Peterborough United on a short-term permanent deal in January 2025 and scored twice in 17 league appearances during the second half of the season. That summer, he joined Stockport County on a two-year contract and went on to make 29 appearances in all competitions during the 2025-26 season, with the Hatters still in with a shout of Championship promotion.
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