Lincoln City’s Cowley brothers chase Checkatrade win and Wembley return

The Gothic cathedral and thigh-thirsty Steep Hill are synonymous with the city of Lincoln but the shops and businesses, from the tearooms to toy shops that line the latter, and surrounding streets are showcasing many distinctive, colourful – predominantly red and white – facades these days, for there is a window-dressing competition with a difference. The judges? The Cowley brothers.

Patisseries, pottery studios and pubs are decked out in club colours. There is a sea of bunting, and images depicting Lincoln City’s likable manager, Danny, and his assistant, Nicky, formerly PE teachers at the FitzWimarc school in Rayleigh, Essex, as kings and penguins – emperors, surely. This week, the Cowleys will pick their favourite, with the winner landing £2,000 worth of advertising around the perimeter of Sincil Bank, the club’s home since 1895, where crowds are fast approaching 10,000. If average attendances dictated the League Two standings, then Lincoln would be a shoo-in for automatic promotion.

Via Concord Rangers and Braintree Town, the Cowleys are at the helm of yet another spectacular season (whatever the outcome now, really), climbing the table as they go, sitting pretty in sixth, unbeaten in six matches, with six to play. It is 389 days since they lost at Arsenal in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and, on Sunday, they return to London, this time to Wembley, in the Checkatrade Trophy final.

“We have learned to cope with big games and playing in front of big crowds,” says Danny Cowley, whose team face Shrewsbury Town after knocking out Chelsea Under-21s on penalties in February. “We have lived that and that gives us confidence. We are able to execute both technically and tactically under pressure. If you’re going to Wembley, you’re going there to win – I am not interested in a day out.”

This time last year they were preparing for a trip to Eastleigh in the National League. But, after picking up maximum points this Easter, another trip to the national stadium this year could yet beckon, providing they secure a play-off berth. They have certainly earned the right to dream. Consecutive promotions is a realistic aim, and suddenly managing director Kevin Cooke’s assertion, upon winning the National League last season, that Lincoln could mirror Burton Albion’s ascent to the Championship from non-league looks all the more feasible.

The Cowleys have guided the team here, but among the key drivers has been a knack for scoring late goals – usually winning goals – and a priceless, momentous team spirit in a group that contains no “energy-sappers”, in the words of the manager.

“We’re physically set up to go until the end,” Cowley says. “The boys work really, really hard on their fitness – they don’t always enjoy it – but that allows us to physically go until the end. Our will is so strong – they never give up. I’m proud of our physical condition, our mentality and our fight.”

Lincoln have proved themselves a streetwise squad, seamlessly adapting to the division on their return after six years away. Cowley stressed the importance of improving his squad in both windows since promotion, by signing players that, he says, were previously playing at a different stratosphere, in terms of being able to lure them to their level.

They signed two leaders: Michael Bostwick arrived from Peterborough last summer while Lee Frecklington returned to the club from Rotherham in January. They also loaned Ryan Allsop, the Bournemouth goalkeeper, and the 20-year-old defender Scott Wharton, from Blackburn, the latter excelling in central defence. Allsop says: “I knew from the moment I got the phone call that it would be a brilliant opportunity for me. We could get the win on Sunday and, hopefully, promotion as well. Who knows?”

The forwards Ollie Palmer, who performed a magic trick at his initiation, and Matt Green, who scored the winner at Carlisle on Monday, have proved shrewd front-line additions from Leyton Orient and Mansfield, respectively. Palmer’s action in March comprised just 108 minutes, a substitute in all five matches, but he found the net three times.

The run-in is not particularly kind – they travel to the leaders, Accrington, and host third-placed Wycombe – but Lincoln seemingly have little fear. As for Green, the Imps’ 16-goal top-scorer, he says his manager is targeting a minimum of “two points per game” until the season’s climax and, if they can accumulate just that, holding on to a play-off spot is an inevitability.

The Cowleys were honoured with the chancellor’s medal at the city’s university in September while, later this month at the Guildhall, they will be presented with a 19-inch trophy, the civic award, presented to those who have “brought credit to the city of Lincoln”. Last month Cowley had the room giggling when, at a pre-match press conference, he declared him and his brother “adopted yellowbellies”, proud to be associated with the club and with Lincolnshire itself, embracing the locals’ nickname for themselves. “Being an outsider, the allegiance that the people have for the city and the county, and how proud they are to be a part of it is really unique. This was never going to be an 11-man job and it is great so many people have bought into it.”

They have revitalised the football club and have – rightfully – been showered with praise from all quarters, and also by the way of links to the pending managerial vacancy at Ipswich, but the prospect of more silverware this season remains the burning ambition. “Our total focus is here,” ,the 39-year-old Cowley says. “We’ve worked very, very hard since the end of last season to put ourselves in this position. It would be crazy of us to think of anything else but Lincoln City and what we’re doing between now and hopefully the end of May.”

Talking points

• Have Fulham – unbeaten in 18 Championship matches – left it too late to sneak into the top two? They trail Cardiff by five points, who host Wolves, the leaders, on Friday and have a game in hand. At the bottom, could Reading, now under Paul Clement, get dragged into the mire?

• Jack Marriott scored his 31st goal of the season on Easter Monday and, as Peterborough’s manager, Steve Evans, says, his long-term future is at a higher level. “That young man is most likely going to go and join an absolutely huge club in the summer,” Evans said. Marriott has proved prolific for the League One side and, after being released by Ipswich in 2015, will surely work his way back up the pyramid – with or without Posh, who remain in a play-off spot.

• On loan from Newcastle, the Blackburn striker Adam Armstrong has been living up to his nickname as the fabled “Mini Shearer”. He is still only 21 and, despite struggling to make the grade at Bolton, the Geordie has proved he has no problem scoring goals in the lower reaches, with nine so far in 14 games for the League One leaders.

• It is a crunch weekend at the bottom of League Two, with the bottom four all playing each other. Grimsby, 22nd, host 23rd-placed Chesterfield, while the bottom side, Barnet, entertain Forest Green, who are top of a lowly pile.

• Forget Wayne Shaw and pie-gate, enter Burger-gate. Andy Holt, the Accrington owner, received a letter from the EFL asking for an explanation as to why he gives his squad £200 for “McDonald’s or the like” if they win. As Holt said, he will continue to spend his money how he wants.