Credit Graham Burrell
Outgoing Lincoln City chairman Clive Nates admitted he ‘hoped’ the club might get into the top six, but that the financial landscape made automatic promotion difficult.
The Imps have been relentless, putting together a 24-game unbeaten run to climb from potential play-off candidates to the cusp of the League One title. The latest win, 2-1 at Reading, confirmed our promotion with games to spare.
The Championship now beckons, not through the agony of the play-offs like 2021, but definitively, with a month of the season left to play. Few could have predicted the outcome this season, and Clive admitted that our promotion aspirations were driven by hope at the start of the campaign.
“I think we hoped here was a chance we would get into the top six”, he told BBC Radio Lincolnshire on the pitch after the win.
“I mean, the teams that were spending money, teams that came down, Luton, Cardiff, Plymouth, and then you had Huddersfield, Stockport, Bolton, Wycombe and Blackpool spending money. We thought our best chance was getting into the top six.
“To have done what they have done in the manner that they’ve done at 24 games unbeaten and they’ve won 19, you know, even a Liverpool wouldn’t have managed to do that.”
Credit Graham Burrell
Clive, who joined the Imps over a decade ago and stepped down as chairman this season, has overseen a remarkable rise, with the club climbing from midtable in the National League to joining the world’s tenth-best division, becoming one of the top 44 teams in England for the first time in a generation.
Having watched many games from the stands, with supporters, he admitted that the return on his investment might not come in terms of pounds and pence, but in something far more valuable.
“It was brilliant,” he said, when asked about watching with supporters. “It’s where you get all the return. There’s no monetary return, just being in there and seeing how happy people are, and obviously everybody connected, just overjoyed with it, and so many people have contributed to getting to where we are today.”
The next aim is the League One title, with five games to play and six points needed to be certain. That quest starts this weekend against Leyton Orient, a game that promises to have a real carnival atmosphere as the Imps face the prospect of second tier football next season.
Like this:
Like Loading…
Related