Are Lincoln City One Of The Most Dangerous Clubs To Lose To?

Following on from our recent piece on sackings, I thought I’d look at whether Lincoln City are a dangerous club to lose a game against.

To do that, I looked at every sacking from 2021/22 to the present day, five years and a couple of months. That’s not just the divisions we’re in: it’s the Premier League right down to League Two. Then, I discounted end-of-season sackings, where a manager has been given the old heave-ho because the season is over, not after a single defeat. Anything after the end of the season and before the big kick-off was ignored.

I also ignored managers who were interim and left the role, something quite common in the Premier League. That gave me a list of the most dangerous clubs to lose matches against. But where do Lincoln City rank?

Firstly, there are a number of clubs that haven’t got any managers sacked over the past five seasons. In the Premier League, it is pretty safe to lose against Arsenal and Hull City, while in the Championship, Portsmouth haven’t condemned a manager to the job queue. It’s safe to face Barnsley, Bradford City, Cambridge United, Leyton Orient, Notts County and Plymouth Argyle in League One, while Barnet, Chesterfield, Port Vale, Rotherham United and York City are the safe teams in League Two. That said, remember York have only been in the EFL for a couple of months, so there is time yet.

So who are the most dangerous teams to face? Over the last five years, four clubs have been ‘responsible’ for five dismissals following matches against them: Bristol Rovers, Doncaster Rovers, Leeds United and Oxford United. Oxford are the ones I find curious: three dismissals came after Championship clubs played them, suggesting the ‘Teams Like Oxford’ and ‘Teams Like Lincoln’ situations really do have an effect. Paulo Pezzolano and Marti Cifuentes lost their jobs after playing Oxford, while Steven Schumacher (and Chris Cohen) went after losing to them the season before.

Doncaster Rovers, like us, have seen two managers dismissed immediately after playing them and, curiously, almost the same dates as the two we’ve seen. Paul Heckingbottom was sacked a week before Luke Williams at Posh, fired after losing against Doncaster, while Henrik Pederson and Nicky Hayen both lost their jobs after defeats this weekend.

Barnsley boss Daniel Stendel will be lucky if he is still in a job come Feb 9th, but if he is, he’ll be worried, because defeat against Blackpool has cost a Tykes’ manager their job twice in the last five years: Neil Collins and Darrell Clarke. Ironically, the Tangerines were the last side the beleaguered boss actually beat.

There is another quirk with Peterborough and Wycombe. Posh boss Grant McCann left his post after losing to the Chairboys, but a couple of seasons later, it was Mike Dodds of Wycombe leaving after a Posh defeat. Meanwhile, Lee Johnson will be sick of Bolton: he left Sunderland after losing 6-0 against them in January 2022, only to depart Fleetwood in December 2023 after a 2-0 reverse against the same opponent.

Eleven teams have then seen four managers dismissed after their matches, and we’re one of them. Ignoring Steve Cotterill, sacked by Shrewsbury after the final game of the season, we have seen Darrell Clarke and Mark Bonner dismissed after losing games against us, as well as this season’s pair.

Here is the breakdown of the most dangerous clubs, and on the next pages, every sacking and the team that ’caused’ it.