Place in the history books awaits Imps or Gas

By Nathan Jackson
May 7 2007

The winner of the Playoff Semi Final between Lincoln City or Bristol Rovers will create history in just under 3 weeks time. Whoever goes through will be the first team outside of the Premiership to appear at both the Millennium Stadium and the new Wembley Stadium.

Lincoln City never appeared at the old version of Wembley Stadium, but have featured twice at the Millennium Stadium and are one of just an extremely small handful of teams to have a 100% losing record at that stadium based on 2 or more games. The first visit to the Millennium Stadium was one of the greatest days in the history of this club. Around 14,000 Imps made their way from Lincolnshire to see a spirited display from Keith Alexander’s Non-League Legion, City lost by a 5-2 scoreline to a very strong Bournemouth side, the only time a side has conceded 5 at the Millennium Stadium.

2 years later and subsequently 2 years ago, 13,000 Imps made the trip this time to face Southend United. To say Lincoln dominated against the Shrimpers would be an understatement. City even scored a perfectly legitimate goal, only to have if ruled off for offside despite everyone being at least 2 years onside when the ball was played. That would cost the Imps as Southend scored twice in extra time to give them a relatively undeserved victory.

Bristol Rovers made just one appearance at the Millennium Stadium, facing Doncaster Rovers little over a month ago in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final. Despite falling 2-0 behind early on, a spirited display from Rovers saw them pull back to 2-2 and go into extra time. It ended in disappointment though as Doncaster pulled out an injury time winner. That run to the final however will be most memorable for a 1-0 victory on aggregate in the Southern final against Bristol City.

Kidderminster Harriers will become the first ever side to have played at both versions of Wembley when they face Stevenage in the FA Trophy on Saturday afternoon. The first two sides to record an appearance at both the Millennium Stadium and the new version of Wembley will be newly crowd Champions, Manchester United vs. newly crowd League losers, Chelski when they both run out for the FA Cup Final next week. Whoever wins out of City and Rovers will be the 3^rd team overall, but the first from outside of the Premiership to do both.