Lincoln City will be playing second-tier football next season for the first time since 1961 after Jack Moylan scored a 96th-minute winner to secure victory at Reading and promotion to the Championship.
Needing just a point to confirm their passage into the second tier for the 2026-27 campaign, Moylan claimed his late winner after Royals midfielder Lewis Wing had cancelled out Ryan One’s early opener for the Imps.
The result was enough to give Michael Skubala’s side an unassailable 19-point lead in League One over third-placed Bradford City.
Lincoln also stretched their unbeaten league run to 24 games having not lost since 22 November 2025, and their next target will be the League One title with a 12-point advantage over Cardiff City, who drew at Peterborough, but have a game in hand.
By winning promotion to the Championship, it feels like Lincoln have finally arrived at their destination after a gruelling 65-year journey.
Since relegation in 1961 from the old Second Division, the Imps have been all the way down to the National League and now they have managed to claw their way back.
Of any team to have played in the second tier, only Crewe Alexandra with a 102-year hiatus have been forced to wait longer.
After League One play-off semi-final heartbreak in 2020-21 and narrowly missing out on a top-six finish in 2023-24, Skubala has led this group of players into a historic new chapter for the club.
The best attack in the league. The best defence in the league. Just one home defeat. Few can argue it is any less than Lincoln deserve.
And what an effort it has been to get there with victory over Reading stretching their unbeaten run to 24 games (W19 D5).
Now all that remains for Lincoln this season is to put the cherry on top of the icing on the cake by sealing a first third-tier league title since 1952.
City’s 2,884 fans in the packed away end had plenty to cheer early on when One nodded home a Reeco Hackett-Fairchild free-kick, which home goalkeeper Joel Pereira should perhaps have saved.
Reading, unbeaten at home in their previous 10 matches, were unable to make any headway against the Imps’ well-drilled defence.
Charlie Savage fired wastefully wide in a rare home attack, while defender Ryley Towler drove narrowly over as the visitors almost doubled their lead.
Lincoln were content to sit back for much of the second period, their job almost completed, as the Royals drove forward relentlessly but fruitlessly.
City substitute Alfie Lloyd headed wide from a Conor McGrandles cross before Reading equalised through Wing’s fine 20-yard free kick.
In the sixth minute of added time, Moylan slammed home from close range as Lincoln returned to the second tier for the first time since 1961 and dealt a blow to the home side’s play-off hopes.
