The Football Association has set the FA Cup draw field for 2026/27 by accepting 743 clubs, with 18 Lincolnshire sides among them. The list gives those clubs their route into the competition before qualifying begins in August.
Lincoln City leads 18 clubs
Lincoln City is the highest-ranked of the Lincolnshire clubs accepted into the 2026/27 Emirates FA Cup, and it will enter at the third round proper. Grimsby Town will go in at the first round proper, while Scunthorpe United and Boston United will enter later in qualifying because of their place higher up the non-league pyramid.
The rest of the county's accepted clubs are Barton Town, Blackstones, Boston Town, Bottesford Town, Bourne Town, Cleethorpes Town, Deeping Rangers, Gainsborough Trinity, Grantham Town, Grimsby Borough, Lincoln United, Skegness Town, Spalding United and Stamford. That spread shows how the competition opens at different levels, from clubs already set for the first round proper to others who still have to work through qualifying.
Cowley and Lincoln City's run
Danny Cowley led Lincoln City to the FA Cup quarter-finals in 2016/17, a run built on wins over Ipswich Town, Brighton & Hove Albion and Premier League Burnley before the side lost at Arsenal. Lincoln became the first non-league club in more than a century to reach the last eight.
Grimsby Town's place in the draw carries its own weight after the club reached the semi-finals in 1938/39 and got back to the quarter-finals in 2022/23 by beating Southampton away. It also became the first club in FA Cup history to knock out five teams from higher divisions in one campaign.
Qualifying route from August
The entry rules split the competition into clear bands. Premier League and Championship clubs go in at the third round proper, League One and League Two clubs enter at the first round proper, and non-league sides start in qualifying rounds beginning in August.
For Lincolnshire's lower-ranked sides, that means a longer route before they can reach the rounds where Lincoln City and Grimsby Town are already placed. The accepted field is set now; the part still waiting is the draw itself, which has not been set out with the entry list.
