Pic: Andrew Vaughan
IT’S less than two hours before Lincoln City have the chance to go top of the National League and Danny Cowley’s office is humming with activity.
Brother, and the Imps boss’ assistant manager, Nicky, is running through the video clips of visiting Wrexham‘s pieces, last-minute ticket requests are being dished out, and their backroom team are arriving to say hello.
Laughter spills through the walls from the gym next door, and you can feel the anticipation of a big game under the lights. Expectation too.
In a couple of hours Elliott Whitehouse will score the only goal in a 1-0 win that will stretch their unbeaten run to 14 games.
The Cowleys are already having a big impact since bringing the formula that took Concord Rangers from the Essex Senior League to the Conference South, and Braintree Town to the brink of the Football League.
So, how have they gone about revitalising a football club that has been in the doldrums since dropping out of the Football League in 2011?
“We spoke to everyone at the club – from the tea lady up to the chairman,” Cowley says. “We tried not to miss anyone and tried to gauge exactly where the club was at.
“We were clear on where we wanted to take it, so once you work out where it’s at and know where you want to go, you’re about bridging the gap. You’re looking to put the strategies and processes in place to bridge that gap.
“So that’s the first thing we did. The responses were varied. The two things that came out of the review were, maybe the club had been allowed to drift and maybe it was lacking a bit of direction and clear vision. Then, maybe they were still mourning being relegated out of the Football League five years ago. We wanted to hit the reset button really.
“What’s happened has happened. The first time we met all the players on the first day of pre-season we showed them a video of the day the club lost to Aldershot and was relegated.
“We wanted to show them exactly where the club had been, the pain it had gone through, but also an opportunity to say, ‘That’s gone – nobody can affect that, let’s hit the reset button’.
“Me and Nicky don’t get on very well with computers, we’re forever hitting Control-Alt-Delete. That’s literally it. Every time my computer doesn’t work I press that, pull the plug out and see if I can reload it. That was kind of what we wanted to do here.”
They also watched games. Lots of games. The result was identifying areas that needed to be improved. Medical provisions were changed, sports science and more video analysis introduced and the dynamics of the environment overhauled.
“We try to be enthusiastic,” Cowley says. “We love what we do so it’s easy for us to wake up every morning and come in. We wanted everybody else to feel like that. We wanted this to be an environment where everybody enjoyed coming to work.
“To do that, first, everyone has to feel valued and part of the journey you’re going on. We managed to do that and then it’s about working hard.”
Obsession
The Cowleys certainly do that. They’ve moved away from their family homes in Essex and, having succeeded as part-time managers while holding down roles as PE teachers, are enjoying squeezing even more out of their day.
“Nicky and I, I don’t want to use the word obsessed but I suppose our wives would – they call it ‘Football Fog’ don’t they?” Cowley says to Nicky.
“When they’re talking to us about Christmas presents and we’ve got our head wrapped up in football.
“We’re probably not that easy to live with – they’re probably happy because they don’t have to live with us full-time at the minute.
“Before we’d leave for work at half-six, spend all day at work together, go to training, spend all evening together, go home at one o’clock and then in bed we’d still be texting about what’s to come.
“We try to avoid talking about football on a Sunday. But it’s not easy because our mum loves football and she always wants to talk about it. We’re a football family.”
Dad Steve and mum Gill are at every game. Last season they were serving the Braintree players’ pasta on the coach home from their play-off first leg win at Grimsby Town.
In the Dambusters Suite, Steve explains how the obsession with football took hold early on with Danny pouring over results and tables. Stats are a big part of their success – in fact, the Cowleys have brought a bit of Moneyball to Sincil Bank.
“I’ll show you my stats programme – I’m proud of this,” Cowley says, spinning his computer around. “We’ve got a couple of boys from iCoach4Sport who help us with this. They do it completely free as charge as volunteers. They also work for Football Manager.”
Each game is painstakingly trawled – it takes 12 hours – to provide Cowley with all the info he needs. Every opposition is categorised into counter-attack, direct, or possession and players are given a mark out of ten.
“It’s all the basic stuff you’d always see – short passes, long passes, attempted passes,” Cowley says. “Then as it goes on, we know now if we keep all these – tackles, clearances, defensive headers, offensive headers, long passes, short passes – above 60 per cent we’ll win.
“It’s about the process. Not the outcome stats, it’s about the performance…these are all Matt Rhead’s headers.”
Green lines show where the striker’s header found a team-mate, or didn’t, and shows where they should put the ball. At the click of a button, Cowley can see that defender Sean Raggett won 18 defensive headers against Maidstone three days’ earlier, and lost only two.
“Every chance we concede is either a quarter chance, half or full,” he continues. “Then we’ve got the pre-pre-mistake, the pre-mistake and the mistake.
“People can look at the goals. But the centre forward might have run straight through and hit it over. That doesn’t mean it’s good defending. We’ve got to analyse.”
The stats aren’t completely gospel. There is still a heavy importance placed on their football nous and hard work that has been the foundation of their success. Cowley’s rise has been impressive.
Injury forced his retirement from playing when he was 28 and, with big ideas on management, he took on the Concord job. He played “the sympathy card” to sign brother Nicky and other friends on the Non-League circuit.
He often jokes about Nicky scoring 28 goals in their promotion season and then getting a pay cut.
“That’s one of my best days in management, that first promotion,” Cowley says. “Concord Rangers were so desperate to go up. They’d tried so many times and failed, so it meant so much to the club. It’s such a great club, people like the chairman Anthony Smith, it meant so much to him.
Emotion
“I remember seeing him, he was really emotional the day after the game. We played Barkingside, we were awful. We conceded a goal straight from a throw in.
“The referee gave it, the linesman flagged for no goal. We took the goal kick, flicked on, Danny Heale scored and we won 1-0. You always wonder if that hadn’t happened if we’d be here now.”
For Lincoln fans that probably doesn’t bear thinking about either. Even after Rhead has missed an early penalty, they still bounced and sung about being on their way to the Football League.
With Raggett sent off after 29 minutes, it’s a hard-fought win against a Wrexham side fresh from beating Forest Green.
The final whistle greeted with a show of real emotion and elation from the home dug-out. Top of the pile for now – a recent injury-time win against the usurped Forest Green a big reason for that.
They’ll follow the same process in the hope of taking the Imps into the mix with big boys.
“Everyone can have intentions, but it’s living it,” Cowley says. “It’s day in, day out working hard putting your words into actions. We’re halfway through the journey this season and we’re enjoying it. You have to enjoy it.
“Everyone wants to make predictions on how it’s going to end but, for us, this is our life.
“What are you going to do? Make predictions all the way until your death bed? You can end up missing a lot of enjoyable moments, can’t you? So we’re just going to live for the moment, work hard and see where it takes us.”
*This article first appeared in the Non-League Paper on Sunday, December 4
