The Road to Wembley from Scotland: Lincoln United's links with Scotland emerge. They have actually played league matches north of the border!

Lincoln United v Spennymoor Town on the 15^th October is my next stop on The Road to Wembley from Scotland. For each match on the Road to Wembley from Scotland I always try to find links with the match to Scotland. As previously reported, I discovered that Spennymoor have a rich Scots heritage and their current Secretary David Leitch is Scottish. Finding links between Lincoln United and Bella Caledonia has been much more problematic. This morning I received a facebook message from the club and it said: “Hi Chris, we do not have any Scotsman within our current squad, and fairly sure we have not faced any Scottish opposition either. None of our directors etc are Scottish either”. I thought I was drawing a blank but then I found out that Lincoln United are one of an elite band of clubs that have actually played league matches in Scotland! In season 00-01 and 01-02 both Lincoln United and Gretna FC were in the old Northern Premier League. On the 16^th September 2000 and the 23^rd March 2002 The Whites strutted their funky stuff on a football pitch in God’s chosen land. The latter match was drawn 2-2 but in the fixture in season 2000-01 Lincoln United recorded a 3-2 win. In the summer of 2002 Gretna were elected to the Scottish League and the teams have not locked horns since.

Raydale Park Gretna: Where Lincoln United won in September 2000

So what does The Road to Wembley from Scotland blogger do on a night off from the blog? Go and watch a game between two non-league teams in the Scottish FA Cup of course! Last night I went to see Cumbernauld Colts play Leith Athletic in the Scottish FA Cup first round replay. I must confess I was at the first match in North Edinburgh also. This was obviously not a game on The Road to Wembley and it was certainly not an Epiphany on the Road to Damascus either! It was a cold night in the West of Scotland and the 100 or so fans rattled around in a huge stadium that seemed inappropriate for such a tie. The snack bar was closed and the match programme, uniquely in my experience did not contain team listings. Poor show but a good match nevertheless. The home team ran out 1-0 winners.