“I feel like I should have something profound to say but I haven’t got that far in the journey, our planning only went as far as the 90 minutes,” the Lincoln City manager, Danny Cowley, said with a smile as big as the achievement he had just overseen. His club came from behind to knock out the Championship leaders, reach the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time since 1887 and ignite celebrations that will be remembered for generations.
Richie Towell seemed to have quashed any chance of such a denouement when he fired Brighton into the lead in the first half but, as it tuned out, that served merely to make Lincoln’s feat more sensational.
“We used the analogy beforehand that if beating them was like getting to the moon, doing so after going behind would be like getting to Pluto,” Cowley said.
They received lift-off on that space odyssey when Alan Power equalised from a penalty in the second half. Then Fikayo Tomori dabbed a cross by Nathan Arnold into his own goal before Theo Robinson crowned a thrilling and deserved victory for the underdog by scoring a third five minutes from time.
Lincoln fans queued through the night in sub-zero temperatures in midweek to buy tickets for their club’s first fourth-round tie for 41 years. They and most of the other members of a crowd of 9,469 gathered in the hope of bearing witness to something close to a miracle in the ground overlooked by Lincoln Cathedral. By kick‑off the atmosphere was rapturous.
Lincoln are 73 places below Brighton in the football pyramid but they quickly showed that they reached this stage of the competition, and the top of the National League, because they are a talented and diligent team benefitting from the expert tuition of Cowley, the former PE teacher who gave up his day job last summer to manage the club full‑time.
Cowley’s counterpart, Chris Hughton, fielded a weakened team but his reserves have high pedigree and did not play as if they disrespected their lowly but dynamic opponents. Brighton knew from the off that they would have to be on their guard to avoid becoming Lincoln’s latest victim in this, the non‑league side’s seventh match of a cup run that has captivated a city.
Brighton’s plan was to prick the underdog’s enthusiasm as soon as possible and Glenn Murray nearly deflated the crowd in the second minute with a close-range header but Paul Farman parried the shot.
Lincoln settled quickly after that and started ruffling their visitors with sharp, tidy play. Sam Habergham and Terry Hawkridge were particularly menacing when they combined down the left, the hulking Matt Rhead was a menace in the air and Lincoln’s set-pieces regularly caused problems.
Brighton’s winger Solly March nearly brought groans from the home fans when he let fly with a swirling shot from 25 yards but it bounced back off the crossbar. There was no such reprieve for the hosts in the 23rd minute, when Towell put Brighton in front with a delicious finish, flipping the ball into the net with the outside of his foot after running on to a flick-on from Murray. That went contrary to the script of one fairytale but was, nonetheless, a special moment for a player who, because of injury, has had to endure a long hard luck story since joining Brighton from Dundalk in 2015.
Lincoln nearly cancelled out Towell’s goal immediately with a superb effort by Nathan Arnold. The Brighton goalkeeper, Niki Maenpaa, had to fling himself across goal to push the midfielder’s shot from 30 yards around the post.
That was as close as Lincoln got to an equaliser in the first half. They might have fallen further behind before the break if Murray had been able to direct a header on target from six yards.
Murray’s travails soon worsened as 10 minutes into the second half he gifted Lincoln a chance to equalise when the referee, Andy Madley, penalised the striker for a foul on Theo Robinson. “We had a tussle and he dragged me down from behind,” said Robinson.
Before play stopped Robinson was outjumped by Maenpaa, who injured himself as he fell to the ground. Brighton had to resort to their substitute goalkeeper, Casper Ankergren, who was sent the wrong way as Power rolled the ball into the net from the spot. Cue joyous songs of praise from the Sincil Bank congregation.
Lincoln’s players were not satisfied. They pursued glory with a tenacity that unhinged the visitors. Critical evidence of that came within five minutes when Tomori became so flustered that he turned a wicked cross by Arnold into his own goal from six yards. “We’re going to Wembley” became the home crowd’s hymn.
Robinson reinforced that unlikely but not impossible idea by making it 3-1 five minutes before the end, finishing smartly from the edge of the box after Brighton had been pestered into losing possession.
“We’ve definitely set a new benchmark for ourselves,” Cowley said.
Hughton was saddened by the depths reached by his team: “It’s a result that I couldn’t see at half-time but if you concede the goals that we have done – and all three were very poor – then it’s very difficult to win.”
