I support Lincoln City Football Club, you might have heard of us after our FA Cup heroics last season. The Imps managed to overcome a League One team, two Championship sides and some outfit called Burnley who apparently play in something called the ‘Premier League’. This astonishing cup-run took the Imps from playing in front on 765 people at Guiseley’s Nethermoor Park in the Fourth Qualifying Round to the Emirates Stadium for a Quarter-Final clash with Arsenal. Alongside becoming the most successful non-league team in the FA Cup since the First World War, Lincoln City managed to claim the National League title to return to the Football League. While the coverage we received was certainly a welcome change, some of it was misleading or in some cases simply inaccurate with the media playing on the non-league plucky underdog trope. Often articles mentioned Danny and Nicky Cowley being PE teachers (a career they gave up in taking over the Imps) or Lincoln City being part-time (while we remained professional despite relegation). This coverage might give the impression that Lincoln City were a non-league club on the way up, but that doesn’t tell the real story.
Lincoln City were something of a League Two powerhouse when I first got into football in the mid-noughties, finishing in a play-off position for five consecutive years between 2002-3 and 2006/7. Unfortunately, a string of ill-fated decisions and some abysmal players led to a slide down the table that landed the Imps in the lower reaches of the Conference (now the National League). 2012’s finish of 17th in the 5th tier being Lincoln’s lowest ever finish (and obviously my first campaign as a season ticket holder). Believe it or not, we were lucky, although we didn’t feel it at the time. With the aid of hindsight, most of our fans now acknowledge that we are fortunate to still have a club in its current form and we didn’t go the way of York City, Stockport County, or worse.
A few seasons of stagnation, constant let-downs and general misery followed before the club landed an incredible coup. The Cowley brothers (Danny and Nicky) agreed to take the reins fresh from an incredible season that saw them take part-time Braintree to 3rd in the National League, just a couple of games from the League Two. With them came a string of impressive signings and new hope for a beleaguered set of supporters. 15 months on, Lincoln City are thriving. The Imps are back in the Football League where they belong and filling Sincil Bank. In just a few months, the Cowley brothers turned a lower-mid-table National League side to title winners capable of going toe-to-toe with Ipswich Town, Brighton and Hove Albion, and Burnley. What’s more, they gave the city a team to be proud of and a club they could believe in again. The decline and dormancy of the Imps had left the wider community disinterested and the 2,000-or-so that still turned out negative, verging on toxic. Danny and Nicky walked into a club that had a lot of problems but, also, one with potential.
But how did this remarkable turn-around come about? Although there are countless factors, chances are that you’re not as interested in the Imps as I am, so I’ll limit it to three important ones: the Cowley brothers themselves, the personality of the team they built, and financial factors.
- The Cowley brothers
Danny and Nicky have an incredible work-rate and, above all, believe in their processes and methods of running a football team. This consistency and the results it has provided have been bought into by the players, the fans, and the wider community (something that is very important to the Essex-born brothers).
The players clearly believe in the Cowley method and the Imps have been able to attract talent we couldn’t have dreamed of previously. The fact that players actually want to be here nowadays still takes some getting used to. The Imps have attracted the likes of Sean Raggett and Michael Bostwick amid fierce competition over the last two summers and their most loyal general, Alex Woodyard, reportedly turned down an offer to triple his wages from League One Scunthorpe.
The fans’ level of support for the brothers is clear, I think you’d struggle to find another club in the country with the same levels of mutual respect between the fans and the management team. This respect and belief is tangible on both sides, the Imps sold nearly 6,000 season tickets this year the atmosphere of positivity at the ground is something I’ve never experienced before. On the other side, Danny Cowley never misses a chance to commend the levels of support and brushed off rumours of them being tempted by Championship job openings this summer.
The city of Lincoln has also firmly got behind the club under the Cowleys’ leadership. Pictures cheering the Imps on adorn shop windows all over town and plenty of businesses are keen to get involved in the club. A cynic might argue this is just a smart way to get some quick goodwill but even that reflects the level of respect the club now commands from the local population. Such a marketing strategy wouldn’t have had much impact a couple of years ago. Furthermore, the sight of kids wearing Lincoln City shirts is becoming more and more common with Matt Rhead challenging Messi and Ronaldo for space on the backs on Lincoln’s youths. Last Saturday I even involuntarily tutted to myself when I saw a young lad wearing the shirt of a European superclub, which I felt incredibly guilty about when I saw his cheering on the Imps at Sincil Bank that afternoon!
- Team spirit
The key to Lincoln’s on-pitch success has been the team spirit and identity built up through player development and astute signings. A combination of Imps that pre-date the Cowleys growing both technically and mentally under better tuition and the brothers’ policy of signing the person first and the player second has led to a team that combines sincere professionalism with a fierce desire to win. This, partnered with impressive physical levels, has meant the team have gained three points (or cup progression) in matches they had no right winning. Late goals defined our cup run and promotion winning season. The Imps beat Ipswich in the 91st minute, sealed victory over Brighton in the 85th minute, and set up our tie with Arsenal with an 89th minute winner against Burnley. In the National League, late goals, comebacks, and scraping wins in tricky situations were the hallmarks of our campaign.
This first two are perhaps best embodied with our win over Forest Green Rovers where the Imps battled back from 2-0 down to seal a vital 3-2 win in the 91st minute, cutting Forest Green’s lead at the top down to six points. The habit of grinding out results when necessary is best illustrated by the climax of our season in April. The Imps had nine games and won seven in a row to claim the title before putting out much-changed sides that drew the final two. Six of these seven victories were by a one-goal margin, two involved late winners, and three involved comebacks. The title was sealed in an eight-day spell involving Torquay (H), Gateshead (A), and Macclesfield (H). Check out those goal times, that’s the kind of grit that wins titles.
- Finances
The final factor I’m going to cover is finances. While we are by no means bankrolled, the club has earned a sizable sum from our success under the Cowleys both directly (through our FA Cup campaign) and indirectly (through the buzz around the club leading to the likes of Clive Nates investing money into the club). This has allowed for some sensible, cautious spending on players, albeit far less than Barry Fry, Steve Evans, and Keith Curle would suggest. More importantly long-term, however, the money has allowed Lincoln City to write off debts that have long loomed over the club and prompted investment in infrastructure that should hopefully promote future success.
The importance of this has been repeatedly outlined by the Cowleys and this is underlined by some fans’ fears that improved training facilities must be acquired as soon as possible to delay Danny and Nicky’s inevitable move onwards and upwards in the world of football.
Keep an eye out for the Cowley brothers, they’ll go far.
If you want to keep up to date with Lincoln City and other lower-league and non-league football, check out my YouTube Channel: Life In Football.
anydivision.wordpress.com 