Retro Lincoln City Shirts – Pride of Sincil Bank

Lincoln City's roots run deep into the very soil of English football. Founded in 1884, the club became one of the 12 founding members of the Football League in 1892, playing alongside historic names in those pioneering early days of professional football. The Imps spent much of the first century of their existence building a loyal local following in the lower divisions, finding their level in the Third Division North and later the Fourth Division, rarely threatening the summit of the English football pyramid but always maintaining the fierce loyalty of their supporters.

The club's most celebrated early chapter came under manager Graham Taylor, who would later go on to manage the England national team. Taylor joined Lincoln in 1972 and proceeded to transform the Imps into a genuine force in the lower divisions. He led them to the Fourth Division title in 1976, and under his stewardship the club climbed to the Second Division – the second tier of English football – for the first time in their history. His tenure at Sincil Bank is spoken about with immense fondness by supporters of that generation, a golden era that gave the city its proudest football memories for decades.

After Taylor's departure, the club experienced long stretches of yo-yo football between the third and fourth tiers, with occasional flickers of ambition never quite sustained. Then came the darkest moment in the club's history: in 2011, following a catastrophic run of results, Lincoln were relegated from the Football League entirely, dropping into the Conference National after 98 unbroken years as a Football League club. The blow was devastating, and many feared the club might struggle to return.

But football has a magnificent capacity for redemption, and few redemption arcs in the modern game compare to what Danny Cowley achieved at Sincil Bank. Appointed manager in 2016, Cowley galvanised the club almost from his first day in charge. In his debut season, he led Lincoln to the National League title, returning them to the Football League after just one season's absence. The return alone would have been remarkable enough – but then came the FA Cup.

As a non-league club, Lincoln beat Ipswich Town and Brighton & Hove Albion to become the first side outside the top four divisions since 1914 to reach the quarter-finals. They pushed Arsenal all the way before a narrow 5-0 defeat ended the dream, but by then the whole country had adopted the Imps as their second favourite team. Cowley built on that momentum, winning the League Two title in 2019 to take Lincoln back to the third tier for the first time in over a generation. The club has since consolidated in League One, establishing genuine ambitions of a Championship return.

Lincoln City has been graced by some remarkable servants over the years, and a handful of players and managers have left marks on the club that time cannot erase.

Grant Brown is perhaps the most beloved outfield player in the club's modern history. A commanding, committed centre-back, Brown made over 400 appearances for the Imps across two separate spells between 1989 and 2003, becoming the embodiment of everything the club stood for: resilience, consistency, and absolute devotion to the badge. Many supporters of that era regard him simply as the greatest player ever to pull on the red and white stripes.

Keith Alexander carved out legendary status not as a player but as manager, taking charge of the Imps in two separate spells between 1993 and 2008. One of the first Black managers in the English Football League, Alexander gave Lincoln some of their most enjoyable and coherent football of the modern era. His sudden death in 2010 was mourned across the football world, and his legacy at Sincil Bank remains immense.

In the modern era, the Danny Cowley period produced its own heroes. Matt Rhead, a physical, whole-hearted centre-forward, became a genuine cult figure during the FA Cup run – his commitment and determination perfectly embodying the spirit of the squad. Midfielder Alan Power captained the side during those extraordinary 2016-17 exploits with a passion that resonated deeply with supporters.

More recently, experienced players such as Liam Bridcutt, a former Premier League midfielder with Brighton and Sunderland, chose Sincil Bank as the stage for the later chapters of his career – a sign of just how far Lincoln City's reputation had risen in a remarkably short period of time.

Lincoln City's traditional colours of red and white stripes have remained the heartbeat of the club's visual identity throughout their long and storied history, giving their kits an instantly recognisable, classically English aesthetic. The Lincoln retro shirt from the 1970s – worn during Graham Taylor's transformative tenure – is among the most prized items from that golden period, featuring bold vertical red and white stripes typical of the era's clean, unfussy design philosophy.

The 1980s brought synthetic fabrics and slightly more adventurous cuts to Sincil Bank, with shirt sponsorship arriving on Lincoln kits from the early part of the decade. Despite the era's design experimentation, the red and white stripes endured in various interpretations, sometimes thinner, sometimes bolder, depending on the kit manufacturer of the time.

The 1990s saw the club adopt more modern template-based designs, though the core colour identity never wavered. Replica shirts from this period are now charming artefacts of a particular moment in football's commercial evolution.

Above all, the kits associated with the 2016-17 season have become the most coveted of the modern era – a retro Lincoln shirt from that campaign carries not just design appeal but enormous emotional and historical weight, linked forever to the most extraordinary FA Cup run in living memory. Our shop currently carries 7 retro Lincoln shirts across multiple decades, each offering collectors a genuine, tangible connection to different chapters of Imps history.