Lincoln

Before Lincoln City existed, there was Lincoln Rovers, a club that had already folded once. In 1884 a group of local footballers regrouped under a new name and kept the city's team alive, taking on the identity that has stuck ever since. The nickname came later and from an unlikely source: the Lincoln Imp, a small stone carving of a devil-like figure set into the medieval cathedral that overlooks the city, gave the club its "Imps" tag and, with it, a piece of local folklore to carry onto the pitch.

For most of their history the Imps have played their football away from the top divisions, and the honours board reflects that: three Third Division North titles either side of the Second World War, a Fourth Division championship in 1976, and two National League titles won 29 years apart, in 1988 and 2017. The most recent of those National League wins came under manager Danny Cowley, whose spell at Sincil Bank pulled the club back into the Football League and set up a run to the FA Cup quarter-finals, an unusually deep run for a non-league side at the time.

Sincil Bank itself holds just over 10,000 people, modest by League standards, though the club's best silverware has come in competitions built for clubs at that level. The EFL Trophy, a knockout competition for League One and League Two sides, went to Lincoln in 2018 after a 1-0 final win over Shrewsbury Town. A League Two title followed the next season.

The club's honours list is otherwise a record of lower-division and regional competition — Midland League titles from before the First World War, dozens of Lincolnshire Senior Cup wins — rather than anything from the FA Cup or League Cup, both of which have eluded them. That changed in scale this year: Lincoln City finished the 2025/26 season as champions of League One, promotion back into the Championship and the club's highest league placing in decades.