The EFL Championship comes to a revolutionised Sincil Bank for the first time ever this Saturday as Lincoln City welcome Portsmouth FC in the early kick-off.
Plenty has been made around Lincoln’s rise over the last ten years, but now the Pro-Ampac Stadium will see it’s highest-level football in 61 years, and with it, a whole host of new features to match.
This has a similar feeling of that dream holiday, or seeing a famous landmark for the first time as a record crowd flood to Lincoln City’s home.
There they will see Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw’s side turn the pitch into a blank canvas as they look to make their own art, building on whatever came before them in what is already a fairytale.
Opponents- Portsmouth FC
However, their visitors, Portsmouth, will be hoping they can turn it into a horror story as they look to bounce back from defeat on the opening day to Queen’s Park Rangers.
That result saw them rooted down in 22nd place in the Championship table, which is currently held up by Michael Skubala’s Bristol City and Southampton who sit bottom.
Which suggests that the south coast outfit are simply hoping just to stay in the division once again, after 16th and 18th placed finishes in their first two campaigns back in the second tier.
Although, their transfer window didn’t reflect that, as they spent just short of £10 million on the likes of Hull City’s Abu Kamara, Serbian striker Marko Milovanovic, plus eight more this summer.
Team news
Lincoln City on the other hand, saw their 27-game unbeaten run come to an end last time out as they lost 2-1 to last season’s play-off finalists Middlesbrough.
Now City head coach Chris Cohen, can’t wait to return home, he said: “I can’t wait to get back in front of the supporters that played such a big part last year.
“We’re in a good place; there’s a couple not too far away and there’s a couple coming to join us, so we’re looking really strong and we’re excited to show the new faces to the supporters as well.”
One of those new faces is Brentford loanee, Yunus Konak, and Cohen said: “To bring in someone of his quality is really pleasing for us and straight away you can see he’s going to have an effect.”
Head-to-head
The last time these two sides met, it turned into a rather infamous affair, that Reading striker Paddy Lane may now regret, as his goal handed Pompey a 2-0 win at the Pro-Ampac Stadium and meant the Imps missed out on the play-offs on the last day of the 2023/24 season.
That extended Portsmouth’s long six game unbeaten run against the Imps with John Mousinho’s side losing just one of their last 14 clashes, a streak which extends back to 1981.
Even before that, it was the visitors this time round that have had the better of the encounter, with City coming out on top just six times compared to Portsmouth’s 15.
Played for both
There’s a rather large queue of names to have represented both sides, with the biggest names including Sean Raggett, who enjoyed a five year stint in Hampshire and Anthony Scully.
On top of that, current Imps, Reeco Hackett, Ryley Towler and Sonny Bradley also spent some time in blue, with Towler only departing last summer.