Lincoln City have been drawn against Derby County in the first round of the League Cup.
It’s a pretty crap draw, given that we could just as easily have hosted minnows like Grimsby Town, but it’s against a side we have a bit of history against, especially in this competition.
It was Derby County who, in 1967, helped attract a club record attendance of 23,196 to the Bank for a rearranged League Cup game after we secured a credible draw at the Baseball Ground.
We then humbled the Rams at the Bank, beating them 3-1 in August 2004. Inigo Idiakez gave them a 28th-minute lead, but City stayed in the game before turning on the style late. Gary Taylor-Fletcher netted a 79th-minute equaliser, before Simon Yeo struck immediately to give us the lead. Jamie McCombe rounded things off nicely, adding a third as Derby hunted a leveller.
The Rams got their revenge in 2008 at Pride Park. Ben Wright gave us a lead early in the second half, and we looked like holding on against the Championship outfit. Nathan Ellington levelled with seven minutes left, before hitting an extra-time brace to ensure a 3-1 win.
Our first two meetings with Derby were in the FA Cup, both victories for them, while we also faced them in the group stages of the EFL Trophy in 2023/24. A youthful Imps side featuring Jovon Makama, Oisin Gallagher and Jay Benn was beaten 2-0.
The 2026/27 season will be only the second in which we have faced the Rams three times, the other being 2023/24, as we’re also scheduled to play them in the league. We go there on December 19th, the second time we’ll have been there on the weekend before Christmas in recent times. We also went there when we drew them in the EFL Trophy, and lost 3-1.
They’ll visit the Bank on April 3rd, our first opponents in a fortnight after the Easter weekend break.
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