Finally, three weeks after the Imps finished their season, the Championship line-up for 2026/27 has been confirmed, and it’s West Ham away for City.
There were three spots to be claimed in the Championship this weekend, two unwanted and one very much wanted. Bolton Wanderers finally returned to the second tier after dropping out in 2019. They finished fifth in the division, but were able to beat Stockport 4-1 at Wembley to claim their place in the second tier.
That means one of the players who moved on looking for success has achieved it, with Ethan Erhahon now set to be a Championship player. Erhahon joined the Trotters in the summer for a fee thought to be in the region of £750,000 with add-ons, although he was an unused sub in the London heat.
Yesterday, Middlesbrough were defeated by Hull City in similar conditions. In one of the most uninspiring games you’ll ever see, an injury-time Oli McBurnie goal was the difference between the two sides. It means a first competitive visit to the Riverside for the Imps, and a first game against Boro in any competition since April 1961, our penultimate win in the relegation season.
Finally, throughout March and April, we heard ‘Tottenham away, olé olé’ as Spurs slipped down the Premier League, but they managed to stay up by the skin of their teeth. They were narrow 1-0 winners against Everton this afternoon in a must-win game, meaning West Ham’s 3-0 win against Leeds was irrelevant. The Imps will now visit the London Stadium and face a first league meeting against West Ham since December 1957, when they put six past us at the Bank.
We have famously played the Hammers in the League Cup twice in living memory; once in the early eighties under Colin Murphy, where Derek Bell earned us a 1-1 draw in front of 13,899 fans at Sincil Bank. Sandy Clark’s late winner beat us at Upton Park in the second leg, after George Shipley had levelled Ray Stewart’s opener, following David Felgate’s save of his penalty.
We also played them in the 2022/23 season, again in the League Cup. It is still rated by Stacey West readers as the best performance of any City side since we began rating, although I think perhaps a few from this season were better in my opinion. A strong Hammers side needed Tomas Soucek to score in the 70th minute to avoid blushes, although they did have 74% possession as a dogged rearguard action almost caused a shock.
Those three teams now complete the line-up for the 2026/27 Championship, of which Lincoln City will be a part. The Riverside and London Stadium will be new venues, while we’ll be trying to get our first win against Bolton since April last year, when Reeco Hackett’s cheeky free kick was one of four goals that saw us claim three points.