CHEEKY IMPS!

Lincoln blow out Burnley and make Cup history

AROUND 3,000 Lincoln City fans were still singing from the away end at Turf Moor half an hour after referee Graham Scott had blown the final whistle to indicate that FA Cup history had been made.

They chanted the name of club legend Graham Taylor and serenaded their new management team of brothers Danny and Nicky Cowley.

Loudest of all, they bellowed out ‘City ’till I die’ in a way that made the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.

Thanks to Sean Raggett’s 89th-minute header, The Imps are the first non-League side since 1914 to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals and Wembley is one match away.

Premier League Burnley, 81 places above them in the league pyramid, were meant to be a step above their previous conquests, Ipswich Town and Brighton, Sean Dyche’s men having beaten nine top-flight teams including Liverpool and champions Leicester on their home patch.

Yet Lincoln’s victory was no fluke. They restricted Burnley to half chances and centre-forward Matt Rhead got the better of a running battle with Joey Barton that eventually led to the Premier League player shamefully trying to fake injury to get his rival in trouble.

Fittingly, the late winner resulted from a well-worked routine from the training ground.

Sam Habergham’s corner was headed back across goal by skipper Luke Waterfall and Raggett applied the finishing touch from close in.

England squad goalkeeper Tom Heaton tried to claw the ball away before it hit the net but goal-line technology ruled it had already crossed the line.

Five minutes of added time saw Lincoln goalkeeper Paul Farman spread himself to save from Andre Gray. The Lincoln celebrations at the end were a sight to behold.

‘You didn’t want it to end,’ said Danny Cowley, his voice hoarse from the strictly teetotal post-match celebrations because of an upcoming midweek game at North Ferriby in the National League.

‘Our fans are Premier League. They have had limited success in recent years, so to share it with them was special. Anyone who thinks the magic of the FA Cup has disappeared hasn’t been to Lincoln recently.’

Goal hero Raggett added: ‘What we have achieved is unheard of in modern-day football and hasn’t really sunk in. It was a battle, which is what we expected. We saw Burnley as a really good version of ourselves.

‘I knew my header was in and was a bit surprised it took the lino a while to give it. At one stage, I thought he wasn’t going to and was getting ready to run back into defence. Maybe he just wanted confirmation from the technology.’

Apart from a few glory years under the late, great Taylor before he went on to bigger things with Watford, Aston Villa and England, Lincoln has always been regarded as a quiet footballing backwater, and out of the Football League since 2011.

But under the Cowleys, a pair of West Ham fans, not only Lincoln but

the famous old knockout competition has been transformed.

Burnley boast the third-best home record in the Premier League but never looked superior yesterday.

‘It’s the first time we have been favourites for a long time,’ admitted Dyche — and his players couldn’t live with it. Indeed, Lincoln should have taken the lead after five minutes when Jack Muldoon missed a clear chance.

Burnley had half-chances but nothing that seriously threatened. The sideshow between barrel-chested Lincoln striker Rhead and Barton was fascinating.

At one point, Barton was riled to the point of standing on Rhead’s foot then recoiling as if the Lincoln man had struck him in the face. ‘We had a bit of a battle throughout,’ said Rhead.

‘Their goal was their first chance and they scored,’ said Dyche. ‘If we had taken an early chance, it would have changed everything,’

But Burnley did not. It is Lincoln who are through and on an impressive run of just one defeat since Boxing Day.