You may or may not have noticed that I have been rather excited about my home football team in recent weeks and now having secured a placed in English Football's second tier - The Championship - for the first time since 1961 it has been announced that there will be an open bus tour to mark the occasion on 9th May. Unfortunately due to the fact I live and work away I will be unable to attend what will undoubtedly be the greatest day of celebration for Lincoln City in living memory.

The last decade has seen the rise, further rise and even greater rise of the Mighty Imps. Ten years ago we were playing "non-professional" football in the National League (Fifth Tier) and being regularly beaten by teams like Dover who have never played in the professional leagues. Since dropping out of League 2 (Fourth Tier) we had struggled and the team and club barely survived as we hit rock bottom, but then.

• we won promotion as champions of the National League and had a remarkable run to the FA Cup quarter finals, the first non-profressional team to acheive that in over 100 years. It created a financial windfall which helped set up the next steps in our rise as much of it was used to create a new purpose built training ground.
• the following year we missed out promotion to League One, at the hands of Exeter City in the playoffs, but won the League One and League Two trophy in what was our first ever visit to the hallowed turf of Wembley, the home of world football.
• we made no mistakes the following year and again were promoted as champions
• there then followed a period of consolidation including another Wembley visit for a playoff final (2021) that just wasn't be as we were beaten by Blackpool in a game best forgotten.
• And now this year 25/26 season we have absolutely smashed League One and while we have yet to see if we can achieve that magical 100 points in one season (we are on 97 points with two games to go) there is no reason to see why we shouldn't. In fact it will almost be a disappointment to finish with two draws and 99 points.

So to give us a flavour and with help of AI I have created the header image at the top of this article - maybe I will show the real image after 9th May.

On that happy note please stay safe and well as always my friends.