Chris Cohen admits the last time Portsmouth visited Lincoln City will always live long in his memory, even if it doesn’t form part of the Imps’ preparation for Saturday’s Championship clash.
Portsmouth arrived at Sincil Bank on the final day of the 2023/24 League One season already crowned champions, while City knew victory would secure a place in the play-offs. Instead, late goals from Myles Peart-Harris (who played against us last weekend) and Paddy Lane gave Pompey a 2-0 win and ended Lincoln’s promotion hopes.
The afternoon could have unfolded very differently. Daniel Mandroiu saw a second-half penalty saved by Will Norris with the game still goalless, before Peart-Harris struck nine minutes from time and Lane added a second deep into stoppage time. For Cohen, though, one of the strongest memories is not the result but the reaction from the home support.
“I think it’s a really memorable game for me,” he told press yesterday afternoon.
“I mentioned it in pre-season at some point, but that was when I knew how good the Lincoln fans were. From my short stint leading up to that game, that was probably where I really recognised the support that we had.
“When we went 2-0 down, even though we arguably should have won the game with Danny missing a penalty, the support we had throughout the last ten minutes was incredible because of how appreciative they were of us as a group of players and staff for what we tried to achieve that season.”
The defeat brought an abrupt end to an extraordinary late-season charge. City had forced themselves into the top six going into the final afternoon, but Oxford United’s victory elsewhere meant anything less than three points against the champions would see the Imps miss out.
Cohen believes the disappointment may ultimately have helped the club, with City now beginning life in the Championship after eventually securing promotion two years later.
“It will always live long in my memory. Of course, we missed out on an opportunity to get promoted. Probably in the long term it’s ended up being a good thing because we’re definitely more ready now than we probably would have been at that point to go into the play-offs and potentially get into the Championship.”
Saturday therefore brings together two clubs who shared a hugely significant afternoon at Sincil Bank, although the personnel involved have changed considerably since then: only Adam Jackson, Ben House and Freddie Draper from that squad remain at the club. That means it isn’t a result to use as motivation inside the dressing room, but he understands why supporters may view the fixture rather differently.
“It’s not really fed into our narrative, but I completely understand the supporters will want some type of revenge for them beating us and knocking us out of the chance of getting promoted a couple of years ago.”
For City, the circumstances are completely different this time around, but fans certainly haven’t forgiven Paddy Lane, nor Pompey. What remains is the memory of an afternoon when Portsmouth celebrated and Lincoln were left wondering what might have been.
Until now.
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