Lincoln City’s Championship Homecoming Ends in Defeat to Portsmouth

Sixty-five years of waiting. One sold-out stadium, freshly rebranded and buzzing. A billionaire backer in the stands. Lincoln City’s return to second-tier football at Sincil Bank – now the ProAmpac Stadium – had all the makings of a celebration.

Portsmouth tore up the script.

A teenage loanee from Chelsea, Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, scored his first senior goal, Adrian Segecic smashed in a free-kick, and substitute Ebou Adams thundered home from distance as Pompey handed the Imps a sobering 3-1 defeat on their big day.

Reeco Hackett’s first-half penalty kept Lincoln in it and the crossbar shuddered in stoppage time, but the party never truly got going.

A frantic start, a ruthless response

The noise inside the 10,545 crowd – with American investor Ron Fowler watching on after taking control of the club last season – rose early as Lincoln flew out of the blocks.

Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw had tweaked their line-up after the opening-day defeat at Middlesbrough, bringing Hackett in for Ryley Towler, and their side responded with a whirlwind opening.

Adam Reach forced Nicholas Schmid into action from a free-kick, the Pompey keeper tipping over smartly. Moments later Ben House broke clear one-on-one in the fifth minute, only for Schmid to stand firm again. Lincoln’s intensity rattled Portsmouth. The chances came. The ball refused to go in.

Then Pompey’s did.

Kavuma-McQueen, one of three changes after Portsmouth’s 3-1 loss to Queens Park Rangers, needed only one real sight of goal. At 17, on loan, away from home, he found the bottom corner with Pompey’s first meaningful opportunity, punishing Lincoln’s wastefulness and silencing the noise in an instant.

The mood shifted. The nerves crept in.

Abu Kamara was then brought down just outside the area and Segecic stepped up. His free-kick from the edge of the box took a slight deflection but the strike was fierce enough, flashing beyond the keeper to double the lead. From a frantic, hopeful start, Lincoln suddenly trailed 2-0 and stared at the harsh reality of Championship football.

Hackett hits back, but Adams kills the comeback

Lincoln, who had not lost a league game at home since early October last year when Exeter City beat them, refused to abandon their attacking approach. They pressed, they ran, they kept asking questions.

Their reward came just after the half-hour mark.

Adam Reach’s shot was blocked by Zak Swanson, the Portsmouth defender penalised for handball. Hackett stepped up from the spot and drilled in a confident penalty to drag Lincoln back into the contest and re-ignite the atmosphere.

The belief returned. The game felt alive again.

Yet every time Lincoln threatened to wrestle control, Portsmouth found a way to steady themselves. John Mousinho’s side absorbed the pressure, slowed the tempo, and waited for their moment.

It arrived from 25 yards.

Adams, introduced from the bench, picked his spot and unleashed a thumping drive that flew past the keeper and into the net. A goal worthy of settling any game, and one that cut through Lincoln’s hopes of a late surge.

From there, the contest became a test of Lincoln’s resilience rather than their ambition.

They still pushed. They still almost forced a grandstand finish. In stoppage time Rob Street saw a deflected effort loop up and crash against the crossbar, the ball bouncing away as thousands inside the ProAmpac Stadium groaned in unison. Inches from lifeline, miles from a result.

A giant leap, and a sharp reminder

When Lincoln City last played at this level in 1961, the moon landings were still eight years away. Since then, the club has drifted through the lower reaches of the English Football League and into non-league, rescued from administration by its own supporters in 2002 and only a decade ago still fighting to escape the National League.

Now they stand in the Championship, promoted from League One on one of the division’s more modest budgets, trying to punch above their financial weight.

The summer signings underline the shift. Romanian defender Andrei Coubis arrived for a fee in excess of £1m – the first time Lincoln have ever paid that kind of money. Another club-record outlay is expected on Danish striker Mikkel Ladefoged from Vasteras SK.

The infrastructure is growing, the ambition is clear, the ownership is serious. The leap is huge.

But this afternoon showed the scale of the climb still ahead. On a day soaked in history and hope, it was Portsmouth who walked away with the points, the goals and the authority.

Lincoln have waited 65 years to come back to this stage. How long will it take them to truly belong?