How the Red Arrows have helped Lincoln soar

How the Red Arrows have helped Lincoln soarImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Michael Skubala took charge of Lincoln City in November 2023ByAndrew AloiaBBC Sport, East Midlands & LincolnshirePublished8 April 2026The Red Arrows are world renowned as daredevils of the sky, an elite Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team based in Lincolnshire that specialises in the inconceivable.And so, when Lincoln City dared to soar to Championship promotion, reaching footballing heights not seen at the club for 65 years, it somehow makes sense that their high-flying neighbours had a part to play.”The club is brave to think differently, look differently,” Imps head coach Michael Skubala told BBC Sport.The club with one of the smallest budgets in League One have looked everywhere – the sky included – in search of an edge to return them to the second tier for the first time since 1961.In Skubala, a former England futsal head coach who studied psychology and sport science and has authored a number of books on coaching, they have a boss only too willing to try “outthink and outwork” their rivals.This season, more than a third of League One sides have played in the Premier League, with seven – Cardiff, Luton, Huddersfield, Bolton, Reading, Blackpool and Wigan – doing so in the past 15 years. “With our resources, we have to get things right,” Skubala mentioned.”But that doesn’t mean you can’t innovate, that doesn’t mean you can’t think about things differently, but it’s not an uncalculated risk. It’s just thinking differently that helps the boat go faster.”The Red Arrows are right on our doorstep. We go down there and we learn from them about how they do things. “They are flying at hundreds of miles an hour with millimetres between their wings, and we’re trying to learn how their pilots are getting prepared to do all that.”It’s a cauldron, if you like, of keeping improving and finding ways to be different, but not for difference’s sake, that’s the important thing.”It’s to be different to find success in football, which is the most important thing we are trying to do.”Listen to BBC Radio Lincolnshire’s Red Imps Club promotion special