Sincil Bank hosts its first Championship test as Lincoln welcome old rival Portsmouth
Lincoln City’s return to Sincil Bank on Saturday carries a different kind of weight than any home game the Imps have played in the last four years. It is their first Championship fixture in front of their own crowd since promotion, and the visitors, kicking off at 12.30 pm, are a club with more than one familiar face on the team sheet: Portsmouth.
Both teams lost their opening-day fixtures. Lincoln were beaten 2-1 at Middlesbrough after leading through Adam Reach, undone by a Will Lankshear brace that turned the game late on. Portsmouth fared worse at home, throwing away an early Terry Devlin goal as Queens Park Rangers scored three times through and around Ilias Chair to win 3-1 at Fratton Park. Neither side arrives with confidence intact, which is partly why this fixture is drawing more attention locally than a routine early-season Championship match usually would.
Portsmouth’s problems go beyond the QPR scoreline. Head coach John Mousinho has already flagged defensive issues in blunt terms, telling reporters that conceding three goals a game “every game” would leave his side “in real trouble,” regardless of whether those goals come in a rush or spread across ninety minutes. The warning follows two matches in which Pompey have shipped six goals combined, and it lands at a difficult moment for team selection: full-back Connor Ogilvie is out for around six weeks after a second knee procedure this summer, and forward Thomas Waddingham needs ankle surgery that will keep him out for at least ten weeks, according to the BBC. Mousinho said this week he is not putting a firm timescale on Ogilvie’s return because rushing him would be counterproductive.
Lincoln’s own setup has changed more than the scoreline from Middlesbrough suggests. When Michael Skubala left for Bristol City in the summer, the club did not replace him with an outside appointment or promote a single assistant. Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw now run the team jointly, the only head coaching partnership of its kind in English professional football, having worked as Skubala’s assistants during last season’s title-winning League One campaign. Sincil Bank was close to a fortress during that run, and both coaches will want the ground to feel the same way again once Championship football starts there for real.
Speaking to Gambling.com, an independent authority that tracks the UK’s newest casino sites alongside broader betting coverage, one analyst noted: “Promoted clubs usually feel the financial gap before the football gap. Matchday revenue and hospitality demand change overnight, while the squad underneath is still the group that won the lower division.” Lincoln’s business over the summer reflected that adjustment, with recruitment aimed at squad depth rather than a wholesale rebuild.
There is a personal subplot to the fixture too. Former Lincoln captain Regan Poole, who left Sincil Bank for Portsmouth in 2023 after being named both Player of the Season and Players’ Player of the Season in the same 2021/22 campaign, has started both of Pompey’s opening defeats alongside Conor Shaughnessy. Mousinho is reportedly weighing changes at the back after that shaky start, which means Poole’s first competitive return to Lincoln since his departure is not guaranteed even if he is available. Whether he plays or watches from the bench, it is the kind of return fixture that tends to matter more to one dressing room than the league table admits.
None of this changes the basic equation facing both clubs on Saturday. Mousinho has been explicit about what needs fixing before it becomes a pattern, telling the Portsmouth News this week that his side cannot keep leaking goals at the current rate regardless of how the games unfold. Lincoln, meanwhile, have the luxury of low external expectations and a settled coaching setup, even after an opening defeat that could easily have gone the other way.
For the team news and injury lines that will decide team selection before kick-off, our recent coverage of Portsmouth’s defensive options has more detail on who Mousinho is likely to pick at the back. Saturday’s game will not settle either club’s season, but for a Lincoln side building a first Championship home crowd in four years, a result against a familiar name would be the kind of start that makes the rest of August feel less urgent.