The Imps and the Bantams is a game that will always carry a certain something that transcends the game of football.
It’s emotional, and there is a shared past that makes this feel like the meeting of two old friends, who can shake hands before and after and go about their business. Of course, our history extends back long before that awful day in 1985.
Lincoln and Bradford have crossed paths for more than a century, first meeting in the 1903–04 Second Division.
The ledger tilts narrowly toward the Bantams overall, yet modern chapters include emphatic Lincoln wins and a handful of tight league tussles that have shaped seasons.
| Lincoln wins | Draws | Bradford wins | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cup | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| League Cup | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| League | 26 | 18 | 30 |
| FA Cup | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Total | 29 | 22 | 33 |
Recent Clashes
The cup ties of the early 2020s were emphatic from an Imps angle. In September 2020, City swept to a five-goal EFL Cup win at Valley Parade, with an own goal setting the tone before strikes from Anthony Scully, Lewis Montsma, James Jones and Callum Morton sealed it.
The following August brought another away cup success, this time in the Football League Trophy, where Tom Hopper, Hakeeb Adelakun and Scully delivered a 3–0 victory that felt routine by the final whistle.
Go back a little further to League Two in 2010–11 and the margins were slimmer. Lincoln pinched a 2–1 win away thanks to Delroy Facey and Gavin McCallum after James Hanson’s opener, while the reverse at Sincil Bank on New Year’s Day went Bradford’s way by the same scoreline.
Those fixtures summed up the edge between the clubs, tight games decided in moments, with away days often more fruitful than expected. That’s four away wins in four clashes between the sides: what we’d give for a fifth tomorrow night!
Earlier Meetings
The rivalry has served up some eye-catching scorelines. Lincoln hit five at Valley Parade in March 1976, a statement win that still gets mentioned whenever the fixture rolls around. Home thumpings appeared in other eras too, including four-nil victories at Sincil Bank in 1938 and 1939, and a five-nil success in 1906.
Bradford have had their spells as well, with hard-earned one-nil and two-one wins featuring regularly through the Division Three and Division Four years, and a handful of stalemates that did little for either promotion push. The pattern across decades is familiar: spells of parity punctuated by a big swing that lives long in the memory.
Conclusion
Recent history gives Lincoln reasons for confidence in knockout football, while the longer ledger reminds that Bradford often find a way in the bread-and-butter league meetings. This is the first such meeting between the teams since our relegation season in 2010/11, that game bringing us our penultimate away win of the season.
Curiously, this is the fifth of seven clashes between the sides to have taken place at Valley Parade.