Paul Lee, D3D4 Football’s Lincoln City Correspondent, examines the reason behind the success of the Cowley brothers…
THE COWLEY’S SUCCESS STORY
The success story of Danny and Nicky Cowley, began along time before they took the cathedral city of Lincoln by storm in 2017.
They were both ordinary non-league footballers, with Nicky actually being the better player.
While they were at Concorde f.c, their story really started when they had three promotions in a very short period leading a team that, when they took charge, were attracting crowds of just 50 to a place in the National League South! By the time the charismatic brothers left in 2015 they had won three promotion and three cup, so were no strangers to success!
Being both P.E teachers, they started combining busy teaching careers with running Concorde.
Their success at teaching came in handy when they started because they could bring their knowledge of sports science to their football team, and they soon realised matching teamwork with soccer science was really paying dividends as Concorde rose through the non-league.
Their methods were not going unnoticed, and Braintree Town of the National League appointed them joint managers for season 2015/16.
The season was the best in Braintree’s history resulting, against all the odds, in a 3rd place finish in the national league, only narrowly losing to Grimsby Town in the play-off semi-finals.
Struggling Lincoln City had been watching the likeable brothers for some time, and when Chris Moyses resigned as Imps manager at the end of the 2015/16 season, there was only one person or persons the Sincil Bank club wanted and they were appointed managers in May 2016.
The rest as they say is history, but what is the secret of their success?
They, along-side many top managers, are using sports science, nutrition experts, specific diet, psychology, and fitness to give their side as big an advantage as possible! All this as well as making sure all players are treated correctly and live properly.
All the players have their own personal routines setup along-side regular blood tests and fitness regimes, controlled by a team of sports scientists.
This alone does not bring success, but it does if you couple this with sending players details of their forthcoming opponents, with defenders being sent live profiles of the forwards they will be facing, while forwards get sent the same of defenders, straight to their mobiles by 7.00 p.m on a Friday night.
Danny is the media expert coming across as approachable and amenable, which is refreshing in a world of premiership bosses who could only be interviewed along-side a club advisors, translators and often exuding impolite irritation.
The Cowley’s have not only transformed the Imps, they are a major part of the City, going around schools and businesses with the National League trophy within days of being crowned champions.
The open top bus parade in Lincoln on Tuesday May 6th was astonishing, with up to 40,000 taking to the streets, a site not seen in Lincoln for 20 years!
Both Cowley’s are very methodical and hardworking in their approach and both are famous for their 18 hours days, the word holiday is probably not in their dictionary!
Hopefully this success will continue, and hopefully they will take Lincoln on what they call ‘THE START OF THE JOURNEY’
Words Paul Lee