The FA Cup: Lincoln make history

“There was a breathless hush as Sean Raggett’s header floated towards goal”, said Jonathan Liew in The Sunday Telegraph; a few “excruciating” seconds before the referee confirmed that it had crossed the line. “And then pandemonium.” With that 89th-minute goal last Saturday, Lincoln beat Burnley 1-0, becoming the first non-league side to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals since 1914. Turf Moor is Burnley’s fortress: they have the fourth-best home record in the Premier League. Yet that was no help against a National League side 81 places below them, who did what Burnley have themselves done to so many teams this season: “sat deep, dug their heels in and turned it into a scrap”. Lincoln has “always been regarded as a footballing backwater”, said Joe Bernstein in The Mail on Sunday. But under manager Danny Cowley – and his brother Nicky, the assistant manager – the club have been “transformed”: top of the National League, they’re in pole position for promotion to League Two. Until they joined Lincoln last summer, both Cowleys were PE teachers who managed part-time, said Paul Joyce in The Times. Workaholics who live off Marmite on toast, they make exhaustive use of video analysis software – unusual among non-league coaches – and take fitness very seriously indeed. Lincoln’s players are a motley crew, said Paul Rowan in The Sunday Times. Most have been at the club for just a year or two; they earn less in a month than the £5,000 they will each receive as a bonus for last week’s win. Their “talisman”, 32-year-old forward Matt Rhead, only turned professional four years ago. He doesn’t look much like a star footballer: a former factory worker at JCB, he is “built like an earth mover”. But if his side beat Arsenal in next month’s quarter-final, Rhead and his teammates will become “legends”.