https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...ise-are-aiming-for-the-championship-28t7gxg75
It's behind a paywall but is anyone able to paste the story into here?
It's behind a paywall but is anyone able to paste the story into here?
Times Article on DC/NC
- Thread starter Luke Imp
- Start date
D
Deleted member 10554
Guest
“Anything’s possible. I wouldn’t let anyone talk about the Championship until we were in League One, because you can’t talk about a division you are two leagues away from — it’s pie in the sky. But now, ultimately, that’ll be the one above us, which sounds pretty good.”
D
Deleted member 10554
Guest
That was the best quote from DC. The rest is sort of stuff we all know. Sorry can't paste it all - work would have my nuts.
Not behind a paywall anymore, so just in case it goes back to that I'll copy and paste it.
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Every so often, Danny Cowley’s eyes drifted around the room. On every wall, a freeze-frame, a memory, a moment in time.
On one canvas: Nicky Cowley, Danny’s brother and assistant manager, mobbed by throngs of elated supporters, beaming, an inflatable golden crown plonked askew on top of his head — a celebration of promotion from the National League in 2017. On another: Sean Raggett, the now-former Lincoln City defender, straining to head home the winner against Burnley at Turf Moor to reach the FA Cup quarter-final. Another: Danny Cowley standing before a red and white sea of Lincoln fans at the Emirates Stadium, where that remarkable 2017 FA Cup voyage finally came to an end. Another: the EFL Trophy held aloft before 30,000 rapturous fans at Wembley.
Those striking images, in the media suite and scattered around the corridors of the Selenity Stand at Sincil Bank, formed part of an exhibition, “The Journey”, curated by Lincolnshire County Council last summer to celebrate the club’s achievements between 2016 and 2018 — and my God, what a journey it has been. Still it continues. Lincoln’s 1-1 draw against Cheltenham Town confirmed, after a slightly anticlimactic wait while results elsewhere were confirmed and the maths double-checked, their promotion to League One for the first time since 1998. The League Two title is in their sights. The transformation of this once moribund club shows no sign of slowing.
“It has been a football miracle,” Danny Cowley, the manager, says. “What we’ve achieved together as a football club . . . I’ve been proud to be a part of it.” A miracle? That description perhaps detracts from the work ethic and sheer strength of personality with which these two brothers from Essex have inspired a football club and its city.
Build “a relationship with the community”, as Cowley says. “That, for me, is the thing that’s most powerful. Winning three points is everything to us, but the club has affected people. Football is a phenomenon. Its like a cause that is much greater than any individual, and it’s something that you’re all part of, you can come together, families can share the experience, spend real quality time, and be part of something that’s much bigger than anyone. That is what we have seen here. It’s amazing.”
It is hard to disagree. In 2015-16, the season before the Cowleys arrived, crowds in the National League at Sincil Bank averaged 2,500, about 1,200 of whom were season ticket-holders. This season, attendances have been close to the 10,000 capacity most weeks, as was the case on Saturday, with 6,200 of them season-ticket holders.
There is a thriving new fan zone, with live music, food and drink stalls and a new Legends Lounge under the Co-op Stand, to cater for soaring corporate interest. “You see a place that’s alive on match day,” Clive Nates, the chairman, says. “As good as winning the National League was, it was the FA Cup that created the excitement. Every round took the club to another level. Without that, in League Two, attendances would have been 4-5,000.”
Chris Ashton, a fan of more than 60 years, has volunteered for just about every imaginable job at the club and now arranges fans’ away travel. Three years ago he was struggling to fill a coach to travel to places such as Barrow and Dover in the National League. Last April, he arranged 35 coaches to Wembley for the EFL Trophy final for the 1-0 win against League One Shrewsbury Town.
Ten were laid on for the trip to MK Dons nine days ago, 6,000 filling the away end for the crucial 2-0 win against their promotion rivals. Trips to Ipswich Town and perhaps Portsmouth and Sunderland are on the horizon. “You have to pinch yourself sometimes to check this is all really real,” Ashton says, wonder etched across his face.
In November, the club moved into a new £1.3 million training complex opposite RAF Scampton, paid for by the FA Cup run, which includes a state-of-the-art gym, canteen, video analysis infrastructure, gleaming, spacious changing rooms and a massage suite. Where once the Cowleys used their charm to build relationships with Lincoln University and borrow a few interns for assistance with sport science and analysis, there is now a full time, professional backroom staff. A new head of football, Jez George, and chief scout, Marc Tracy, have joined from Cambridge United to oversee recruitment.
Lincoln have been top of League Two since September 1. The experience and leadership of Jason Shackell, the former Derby County and Burnley defender signed in the summer, has proved invaluable. His partnership with Michael Bostwick has contributed to the second-meanest defence in the division. The wingers Bruno Andrade and Harry Anderson have made or scored 28 league goals between them. John Akinde, Lincoln’s record signing from Barnet, has led the line with 14 goals.
Yet more than anything it has been a collective effort. “We never get ahead of ourselves, and that’s down to the management,” Shay McCartan, Lincoln’s goal scorer on Saturday, says. “They’ve drilled it into us all season that we can’t be complacent.”
The narrative, however, is no longer that of the plucky underdog. Lincoln’s most recent accounts, to the year ending June 2018, showed a four-fold increase in turnover and playing budget, which is now more than £4 million, since promotion from the National League. Nates awarded the Cowleys with new contracts until 2022 in a bid to ward off interest from higher up the food chain, and assisted with the move of their families to the city from Essex last summer. The chairman is determined for the club to keep pace with the Cowleys’ ambitions, he says, while not gambling with the club’s future. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Nates says. “You don’t get people like [the Cowleys], who have been able to create what they have, very often.”
That may sound hyperbolic, but the evidence is clear. It is perhaps worth reiterating that this is the former PE teachers’ third season in full-time professional football. Their rise began in the Essex Senior League at Concord Rangers, who they took up three tiers to the National League South with meagre resources. They led Braintree Town to the National League play-off semi-finals in 2016, taking the Grimsby Town team your columnist played for to extra time in the second leg with a group of players assembled on a quarter of our playing budget but armed with a remarkable team spirit, organisation and some innovative set-plays.
The familiar thread running through their journey, however, is an ability to inspire those who play, support, and work alongside them. “I love people. I love human beings. I loved being a teacher. I loved having the opportunity to work with young people,” Danny Cowley says. “The bit I massively miss from teaching is being able to affect the kids and an opportunity to make a difference in their lives. And I’m trying to find a way of doing that in football, I suppose.”
How far can Lincoln go? “I’ve always been an underdog as a football manager,” Cowley says. “This season, I’m not sure I have enjoyed being the favourite. Now we’re going into a division with some real big hitters.
“Anything’s possible. I wouldn’t let anyone talk about the Championship until we were in League One, because you can’t talk about a division you are two leagues away from — it’s pie in the sky. But now, ultimately, that’ll be the one above us, which sounds pretty good.”
------------------
Every so often, Danny Cowley’s eyes drifted around the room. On every wall, a freeze-frame, a memory, a moment in time.
On one canvas: Nicky Cowley, Danny’s brother and assistant manager, mobbed by throngs of elated supporters, beaming, an inflatable golden crown plonked askew on top of his head — a celebration of promotion from the National League in 2017. On another: Sean Raggett, the now-former Lincoln City defender, straining to head home the winner against Burnley at Turf Moor to reach the FA Cup quarter-final. Another: Danny Cowley standing before a red and white sea of Lincoln fans at the Emirates Stadium, where that remarkable 2017 FA Cup voyage finally came to an end. Another: the EFL Trophy held aloft before 30,000 rapturous fans at Wembley.
Those striking images, in the media suite and scattered around the corridors of the Selenity Stand at Sincil Bank, formed part of an exhibition, “The Journey”, curated by Lincolnshire County Council last summer to celebrate the club’s achievements between 2016 and 2018 — and my God, what a journey it has been. Still it continues. Lincoln’s 1-1 draw against Cheltenham Town confirmed, after a slightly anticlimactic wait while results elsewhere were confirmed and the maths double-checked, their promotion to League One for the first time since 1998. The League Two title is in their sights. The transformation of this once moribund club shows no sign of slowing.
“It has been a football miracle,” Danny Cowley, the manager, says. “What we’ve achieved together as a football club . . . I’ve been proud to be a part of it.” A miracle? That description perhaps detracts from the work ethic and sheer strength of personality with which these two brothers from Essex have inspired a football club and its city.
Build “a relationship with the community”, as Cowley says. “That, for me, is the thing that’s most powerful. Winning three points is everything to us, but the club has affected people. Football is a phenomenon. Its like a cause that is much greater than any individual, and it’s something that you’re all part of, you can come together, families can share the experience, spend real quality time, and be part of something that’s much bigger than anyone. That is what we have seen here. It’s amazing.”
It is hard to disagree. In 2015-16, the season before the Cowleys arrived, crowds in the National League at Sincil Bank averaged 2,500, about 1,200 of whom were season ticket-holders. This season, attendances have been close to the 10,000 capacity most weeks, as was the case on Saturday, with 6,200 of them season-ticket holders.
There is a thriving new fan zone, with live music, food and drink stalls and a new Legends Lounge under the Co-op Stand, to cater for soaring corporate interest. “You see a place that’s alive on match day,” Clive Nates, the chairman, says. “As good as winning the National League was, it was the FA Cup that created the excitement. Every round took the club to another level. Without that, in League Two, attendances would have been 4-5,000.”
Chris Ashton, a fan of more than 60 years, has volunteered for just about every imaginable job at the club and now arranges fans’ away travel. Three years ago he was struggling to fill a coach to travel to places such as Barrow and Dover in the National League. Last April, he arranged 35 coaches to Wembley for the EFL Trophy final for the 1-0 win against League One Shrewsbury Town.
Ten were laid on for the trip to MK Dons nine days ago, 6,000 filling the away end for the crucial 2-0 win against their promotion rivals. Trips to Ipswich Town and perhaps Portsmouth and Sunderland are on the horizon. “You have to pinch yourself sometimes to check this is all really real,” Ashton says, wonder etched across his face.
In November, the club moved into a new £1.3 million training complex opposite RAF Scampton, paid for by the FA Cup run, which includes a state-of-the-art gym, canteen, video analysis infrastructure, gleaming, spacious changing rooms and a massage suite. Where once the Cowleys used their charm to build relationships with Lincoln University and borrow a few interns for assistance with sport science and analysis, there is now a full time, professional backroom staff. A new head of football, Jez George, and chief scout, Marc Tracy, have joined from Cambridge United to oversee recruitment.
Lincoln have been top of League Two since September 1. The experience and leadership of Jason Shackell, the former Derby County and Burnley defender signed in the summer, has proved invaluable. His partnership with Michael Bostwick has contributed to the second-meanest defence in the division. The wingers Bruno Andrade and Harry Anderson have made or scored 28 league goals between them. John Akinde, Lincoln’s record signing from Barnet, has led the line with 14 goals.
Yet more than anything it has been a collective effort. “We never get ahead of ourselves, and that’s down to the management,” Shay McCartan, Lincoln’s goal scorer on Saturday, says. “They’ve drilled it into us all season that we can’t be complacent.”
The narrative, however, is no longer that of the plucky underdog. Lincoln’s most recent accounts, to the year ending June 2018, showed a four-fold increase in turnover and playing budget, which is now more than £4 million, since promotion from the National League. Nates awarded the Cowleys with new contracts until 2022 in a bid to ward off interest from higher up the food chain, and assisted with the move of their families to the city from Essex last summer. The chairman is determined for the club to keep pace with the Cowleys’ ambitions, he says, while not gambling with the club’s future. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Nates says. “You don’t get people like [the Cowleys], who have been able to create what they have, very often.”
That may sound hyperbolic, but the evidence is clear. It is perhaps worth reiterating that this is the former PE teachers’ third season in full-time professional football. Their rise began in the Essex Senior League at Concord Rangers, who they took up three tiers to the National League South with meagre resources. They led Braintree Town to the National League play-off semi-finals in 2016, taking the Grimsby Town team your columnist played for to extra time in the second leg with a group of players assembled on a quarter of our playing budget but armed with a remarkable team spirit, organisation and some innovative set-plays.
The familiar thread running through their journey, however, is an ability to inspire those who play, support, and work alongside them. “I love people. I love human beings. I loved being a teacher. I loved having the opportunity to work with young people,” Danny Cowley says. “The bit I massively miss from teaching is being able to affect the kids and an opportunity to make a difference in their lives. And I’m trying to find a way of doing that in football, I suppose.”
How far can Lincoln go? “I’ve always been an underdog as a football manager,” Cowley says. “This season, I’m not sure I have enjoyed being the favourite. Now we’re going into a division with some real big hitters.
“Anything’s possible. I wouldn’t let anyone talk about the Championship until we were in League One, because you can’t talk about a division you are two leagues away from — it’s pie in the sky. But now, ultimately, that’ll be the one above us, which sounds pretty good.”
DEEPING IMP
Vital 1st Team Regular
Excellent piece.
nlondonimp
Vital Champions League
not much talk about consolidation in that last paragraph
