Raised expectations 'healthy' for Imps - Skubala

Michael Skubala was appointed Lincoln City boss in November 2023

Lincoln City boss Michael Skubala has welcomed the idea that more will be expected of his side after they fell agonisingly short of the League One play-offs this season.

A final-day defeat by title winners Portsmouth meant the Imps finished one place and two points adrift of a top-six finish.

Lincoln had started the day in the play-off places, having won 12 games and lost just one of their 19 before the season-ending defeat.

That fine run of form, coupled with fresh investment in the club from Ron Fowler, a former co-owner of Major League Baseball side San Diego Padres, and Skubala's added experience in the job - having been appointed as a first-team rookie head coach in November - has elevated the Imps as a team to watch in League One.

"It's healthy to have expectations and I think we need to have expectations as players and staff," Skubala told BBC Radio Lincolnshire. "We want to do well."

Skubala, the former Leeds United Under-21 coach who replaced Mark Kennedy at the helm of Lincoln in mid-November, oversaw a remarkable turnaround at the LNER Stadium in the final three months of the season.

They had lost four successive matches over the festive period, leaving them 11th in the table and 11 points adrift of the play-offs on 1 January, before going on that remarkable run that got them to the brink of the play-offs.

"Seventh is a really good finish," Skubala said.

"And I know it's brutal, because we all want to get to the play-offs - and I think we should aim for the play-offs, if not more.

"But if you look at Lincoln and some of the bigger clubs in the league, then seventh is a really healthy finish."

And Skubala does not see next season's bid to get out of the division as being any easier now that the well-backed duo of Portsmouth and Derby County have gone up.

"If you look at the clubs coming down, and the ones coming up, like Wrexham and Stockport, they will have big squads as well," Skubala said.

"Reading and Wigan won't have points deductions next season and they are good teams.

"It will be a really tough league next season but hopefully we can keep pushing."