After more than 65 years away from second-tier football, Lincoln City’s return to the Championship carried a weight of joy that even defeat could not diminish.
Yuri Gagarin had only just returned from space the last time Lincoln hosted second-tier football, a 2-0 win over Leyton Orient back in 1961.
The Imps earned their place in the Championship by winning League One last season with more than 100 points, a remarkable achievement for a club once rooted in non-league obscurity.
Sincil Bank welcomed its biggest crowd in more than 40 years, with 10,545 supporters turning out to witness the historic occasion under sunny skies.
Portsmouth inflicted a second consecutive defeat on Lincoln to open the season, but the mood inside and outside the ground remained largely upbeat given the scale of what this club has achieved.
Lincoln spent £10m over the summer modernising Sincil Bank, adding a new fan village, a big screen, and significant upgrades to the stands, which were almost entirely sold out.
Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw have jointly taken over in the dugout from Michael Skubala, though the club’s commitment to a traditional 4-4-2 system that carried them through the divisions remains firmly intact.
Ryan Kavuma-McQueen and Adrian Segecic struck wonderful goals to put Portsmouth 2-0 ahead before Reeco Hackett’s penalty gave the Imps a foothold, but Ebou Adams sealed the win for Pompey in the 69th minute.
“It’s been an amazing day for the club,” Shaw said. “The atmosphere was fantastic at the start of the game and it all aligned lovely until the goal.”
Shaw acknowledged the step up in quality was evident, adding: “The ball moves around a bit quicker at this level, the quality increases so we’ve got to be a bit more alive to certain situations.”
Barely a soul left before the final whistle, and many supporters remained in the new fan village long after the match to reflect on both the loss and the wider journey that brought them here.
The revamped Stacey West Stand bears the names of two fans who died in the Bradford fire disaster of 1985, a reminder that this club has never lost sight of what genuinely matters beyond results.
Lincoln went from non-league football to the Championship in roughly a decade, doing so without the reckless spending that has defined the rise of so many other clubs in the EFL.
Last season’s League One triumph came with a mid-table budget, in a division that included the likes of Cardiff, Luton, and Bolton, making the achievement all the more extraordinary.
Survival in the Championship will represent another enormous challenge, but with a packed stadium, a united fanbase, and a spirit that has consistently defied expectations, Lincoln City will not be giving up without a serious fight.