How many points Lincoln City & Cardiff City need to officially confirm automatic promotion | OneFootball

The top two in League One took a massive step towards the Championship at the weekend

After both Bolton Wanderers and Bradford City dropped points on Saturday, Lincoln City and Cardiff City have one foot in the door of the Championship.

The current League One top two already had a healthy lead over their two direct challengers, and they did their bit in maintaining it, as Lincoln extended their unbeaten run to a club-record 20 games by sweeping aside play-off hopefuls Stockport County, while Cardiff demolished Exeter City, winning 4-0 at St James' Park

However, that points barrier increased even further after Bolton were held at Rotherham United, and Bradford's away woes in 2026 continued against Wigan Athletic, losing a sixth away game in their last seven trips.

With nine games left, the finish line is almost in sight, but how many points do both need to secure a place in the Championship next season?

Lincoln City need just 13 points to reach the second tier

With 27 points available, Lincoln needs just 13 to confirm a point total higher than what Bolton can achieve, and the way Michael Skubala's side is playing, they may complete that in the next five games.

I wrote a mere two weeks ago that Bolton would likely prefer Cardiff to beat the Imps when the two sides met in the Welsh capital, as Lincoln would have a difficult run of fixtures coming up, and Steven Schumacher's side could put themselves within touching distance going into the final stages of the campaign.

However, that's been proven massively wrong. Not only did Lincoln swat Cardiff away on their own patch, but they also made light work of Exeter at St James Park and Stockport over the weekend. Huddersfield Town are the final side in this so-called "tough run," but they're likely heading to West Yorkshire as favourites on Wednesday, too.

Michael Skubala's side have won 10 of their last 11 games, with Bolton being the only side to take any points from them in that time. But even in that draw, Lincoln probably could have been three or four up by the time Sam Dalby headed in a late equaliser.

Not many sides have been able to stand up to Lincoln over the last four months, and a season in the second tier for the first time since 1960/61 looks more than likely.

Cardiff City need 17 points for an instant Championship return

A few questions were being asked about Cardiff over the last few weeks, heading into their meeting with Exeter on Saturday. After picking up just four points in their last four games, critics were wondering if the Bluebirds were going to falter.

A resounding 4-0 away win has put those murmurs to bed and has opened up an 11-point gap over Bolton in third, meaning that they need just 17 points from their final nine games to secure an immediate return to the Championship.

And, the relative ease with which they've been able to dispatch sides in the bottom half at times this season should mean that matchups with Blackpool, Port Vale, Peterborough United, Northampton Town and Mansfield Town should deliver them the points needed to all but secure that top two spot.

Ultimately, their focus will be on catching Lincoln and winning the title, but they will know that they still have a job to do in the meantime to keep those already quite a few steps behind them at arm's length.

Inconsistencies below them may mean that Lincoln City and Cardiff City don't need that many points for a place in the Championship

13 and 17 points for the top two, respectively, mark the minimum points required from their own games to secure a place in the automatic promotion positions.

That seems doable enough, especially given their performances through 37 games, but with the inconsistencies surrounding both Bolton and Bradford recently, Lincoln and Cardiff may not even need as many as that to finish inside the top two.

Bolton are the side in third, on 65 points, and with a run-in that sees them play Cardiff and Bradford, among other tough sides, plus their league-high number of draws, the likelihood that they'll take 27 points from nine games and finish on 92 is incredibly unlikely.

So, not only do Lincoln and Cardiff have a realistic points target to take from their own games to secure promotion, they may not even need to achieve that to go up anyway.