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THE JOURNEYMAN
From playground to dugout: PE teaching brothers schooling Lincoln in ‘Moneyball’
By Gregor Robertson.
The Cowley brothers, Danny, left and Nicky, are attempting to change Lincoln’s fortunes after their arrival from Braintree Town
BRADLEY ORMESHER FOR THE TIMES
When Danny Cowley was appointed manager of Lincoln City in May, it was the first time in almost 30 years that they had targeted and appointed a manager of another club. To clarify, since the appointment of Colin Murphy from Stockport County in 1987, all of Lincoln’s managers have either been out of work, employed in another capacity elsewhere, or promoted from within.
That certainly points to some rather uninspired decisions at Sincil Bank over the years. The late Keith Alexander did lead Lincoln, on the verge of liquidation, to the League Two play-offs in four consecutive seasons between 2002 and 2006, although ultimately he was unsuccessful. Other than that, it has been slim pickings for a club enduring their sixth season outside of the Football League.
At Braintree the kit was always damp and the changing room was like Saddam Hussein’s cave
Danny Cowley
Their fortunes may be about to change, however. A pair of sibling former PE teachers from Essex, Danny and Nicky Cowley, led part-time Braintree Town to the Vanarama National League play-offs last season and have taken on their first role in full-time football — a break from the mould, you could say.
An hour in their company before Saturday’s match against Barrow at Sincil Bank left the impression that they are also looking to break the mould. “The benefit of having been PE teachers is we can transfer little bits of other sports into football,” Nicky, 34, the Lincoln assistant manager, says while sitting in their modest office a few hours before kick-off.
“Game calls, for example: they’re used in rugby and basketball — there’s never a lineout taken in rugby without a game call. It amazes me that there’s never any in football.”
He proceeds to flick through a book of set pieces (corners and free kicks), with names such as Cluster, Stagger, Box, Shoehorn . . . “On a Friday in training, I’ll shout, ‘Shoehorn!’ and the players all have to run and show me their starting positions. Then from there, they have to show me their runs.”
Performance analyst Glen Skingsley and the brothers take me through the detailed statistics model they use, via laptops and iPads hooked up to a flat screen TV on the wall. An app called Hudl, which allows clips to be sent to each player’s mobile or tablet after a game, is a tool they used at Braintree as well as with the Lincoln players and, an average of 45 minutes is spent on team video analysis every day before training.
“We’ve got a couple of lads we call our Moneyball guys; one of them looks like the guy from the film as well,” Danny says. “He works for Football Manager, the computer game,” Nicky says, “and is involved with a company, iCoach4Sport, that works in schools. There’s no money involved, we’re helping him out with the company and he’s helping us back.”
“We’ve arranged to give 12 lectures for Lincoln University too, and they’re giving us their students as interns,” Danny says. “It’s just about making relationships.”
In the National League, an enterprising, scholarly approach like theirs could not be further from the norm. These are Premier League methods: analysis, debriefs, morning prehab sessions, hydration tests and supplements, for which the brothers’ degrees in PE and sport science come in handy.
After playing for the likes of Boreham Wood, Romford and AFC Hornchurch in non-League football, Danny embarked on a managerial career with Concord Rangers when a serious hamstring injury forced him to hang up his boots at the age of 29.
All the while, the pair were working at FitzWimarc School in Essex — Danny as head of PE, and Nicky as head of boys’ sport, as the school was voted 2013 state school of the year — winning national awards for cross-country, athletics, and basketball along the way.
“Sometimes we’d go from parents’ evening straight to training,” Nicky says. “Then we’d be in for 7.30 every morning for the school kids’ practice. Cross-country on a Tuesday morning, and there’d be 120 kids there, white T-shirt, red shorts, freezing cold weather, ready to run.”
Concord Rangers were playing in the Essex league (step five of the non-League ladder) when the pair joined in 2007, Nicky as a player under his brother.
“It was just a patch of grass really,” Danny says of Concord’s ground. “It was starting from scratch, and there was something exciting about that. When we got some success on the pitch, the chairman would use the money to improve the changing rooms, or put some terracing in. You could actually see the club developing. It went from a fenced-off pitch to a stadium; from 50 fans to 350. I know that sounds like nothing . . .” he says self-depreciatingly. “Three hundred and fifty people for Concord is fantastic,” Nicky says, jumping in to rescue his brother.
Three promotions in six seasons and a flirtation with the play-off spots in the Conference South meant that their rise through the divisions began to worry a club whose finances and facilities were well below the level of a National Premier team.
“The chairman would come in after we’d won a game, and say: ‘Come on now!’ ” Danny said, “but he really meant it. It got to the stage where he was happy when we lost.”
Lincoln suffer their first defeat in seven games against Barrow at Sincil Bank but will be among the favourites for promotion
BRADLEY ORMESHER FOR THE TIMES
The brothers have been used to working hard with no money and decrepit facilities for a long time. The change of surroundings is stark. “At Braintree the kit was always damp and the changing rooms were like Saddam Hussein’s cave,” Danny jokes. “We trained on a little bit of grass by the car park . . .”
“It might as well have been the car park,” Nicky says. Danny continues: “We had a mantra, like the All Blacks: ‘no dickheads’. No energy-sappers. We used to give them 45 seconds to shut the door, have a moan up, then it’s done.”
Their budget at Lincoln dwarfs Braintree’s, which was just £185,000, with the highest-paid player on £350 a week. Attendances are up 25 per cent since their arrival — more than 3,500 were at Sincil Bank on Saturday — and although Lincoln were top of the National Premier before the 2-1 defeat by Barrow, they are keen to manage expectations.
The brothers are relishing full-time football. “Even if results haven’t worked out, you’re aware of what a fantastic life it is to do something you’re so passionate about as a job,” Nicky says.
In a nutshell:
Nickname The Imps/Red Imps
Club crest Image of the Lincoln Imp, which can be found on a wall inside Lincoln Cathedral. Legend tells of the creature being sent to the cathedral by Satan, only to be turned to stone by an angel
Ground/Capacity Sincil Bank, 10,120
Price of a programme The Imp, £3, 46 pages
Price of a pie Steak, beef & onion, cheese & potato, chicken & mushroom, all £3.10
Price of a pint No alcohol sold inside the stadium
Weirdest thing in the club shop Lincoln City toothbrush, 50p
Mascot Poacher the Imp, after the old song the Lincolnshire Poacher
One for the future Alex Woodyard, 23-year-old England C midfielder played under the Cowley brothers at both Concord Rangers and Braintree Town
Record signing Dean Walling, £75,000 from Carlisle in 1997
Highest league finish Fifth in the Second Division, 1901-02
Moment in history Fourth Division champions in 1976, accruing 74 points, a record under the system of two points for a win
Greatest player The late Andy Graver. Striker scored 143 goals in 274 appearances in two spells in the 1950s
From playground to dugout: PE teaching brothers schooling Lincoln in ‘Moneyball’
By Gregor Robertson.
The Cowley brothers, Danny, left and Nicky, are attempting to change Lincoln’s fortunes after their arrival from Braintree Town
BRADLEY ORMESHER FOR THE TIMES
When Danny Cowley was appointed manager of Lincoln City in May, it was the first time in almost 30 years that they had targeted and appointed a manager of another club. To clarify, since the appointment of Colin Murphy from Stockport County in 1987, all of Lincoln’s managers have either been out of work, employed in another capacity elsewhere, or promoted from within.
That certainly points to some rather uninspired decisions at Sincil Bank over the years. The late Keith Alexander did lead Lincoln, on the verge of liquidation, to the League Two play-offs in four consecutive seasons between 2002 and 2006, although ultimately he was unsuccessful. Other than that, it has been slim pickings for a club enduring their sixth season outside of the Football League.
At Braintree the kit was always damp and the changing room was like Saddam Hussein’s cave
Danny Cowley
Their fortunes may be about to change, however. A pair of sibling former PE teachers from Essex, Danny and Nicky Cowley, led part-time Braintree Town to the Vanarama National League play-offs last season and have taken on their first role in full-time football — a break from the mould, you could say.
An hour in their company before Saturday’s match against Barrow at Sincil Bank left the impression that they are also looking to break the mould. “The benefit of having been PE teachers is we can transfer little bits of other sports into football,” Nicky, 34, the Lincoln assistant manager, says while sitting in their modest office a few hours before kick-off.
“Game calls, for example: they’re used in rugby and basketball — there’s never a lineout taken in rugby without a game call. It amazes me that there’s never any in football.”
He proceeds to flick through a book of set pieces (corners and free kicks), with names such as Cluster, Stagger, Box, Shoehorn . . . “On a Friday in training, I’ll shout, ‘Shoehorn!’ and the players all have to run and show me their starting positions. Then from there, they have to show me their runs.”
Performance analyst Glen Skingsley and the brothers take me through the detailed statistics model they use, via laptops and iPads hooked up to a flat screen TV on the wall. An app called Hudl, which allows clips to be sent to each player’s mobile or tablet after a game, is a tool they used at Braintree as well as with the Lincoln players and, an average of 45 minutes is spent on team video analysis every day before training.
“We’ve got a couple of lads we call our Moneyball guys; one of them looks like the guy from the film as well,” Danny says. “He works for Football Manager, the computer game,” Nicky says, “and is involved with a company, iCoach4Sport, that works in schools. There’s no money involved, we’re helping him out with the company and he’s helping us back.”
“We’ve arranged to give 12 lectures for Lincoln University too, and they’re giving us their students as interns,” Danny says. “It’s just about making relationships.”
In the National League, an enterprising, scholarly approach like theirs could not be further from the norm. These are Premier League methods: analysis, debriefs, morning prehab sessions, hydration tests and supplements, for which the brothers’ degrees in PE and sport science come in handy.
After playing for the likes of Boreham Wood, Romford and AFC Hornchurch in non-League football, Danny embarked on a managerial career with Concord Rangers when a serious hamstring injury forced him to hang up his boots at the age of 29.
All the while, the pair were working at FitzWimarc School in Essex — Danny as head of PE, and Nicky as head of boys’ sport, as the school was voted 2013 state school of the year — winning national awards for cross-country, athletics, and basketball along the way.
“Sometimes we’d go from parents’ evening straight to training,” Nicky says. “Then we’d be in for 7.30 every morning for the school kids’ practice. Cross-country on a Tuesday morning, and there’d be 120 kids there, white T-shirt, red shorts, freezing cold weather, ready to run.”
Concord Rangers were playing in the Essex league (step five of the non-League ladder) when the pair joined in 2007, Nicky as a player under his brother.
“It was just a patch of grass really,” Danny says of Concord’s ground. “It was starting from scratch, and there was something exciting about that. When we got some success on the pitch, the chairman would use the money to improve the changing rooms, or put some terracing in. You could actually see the club developing. It went from a fenced-off pitch to a stadium; from 50 fans to 350. I know that sounds like nothing . . .” he says self-depreciatingly. “Three hundred and fifty people for Concord is fantastic,” Nicky says, jumping in to rescue his brother.
Three promotions in six seasons and a flirtation with the play-off spots in the Conference South meant that their rise through the divisions began to worry a club whose finances and facilities were well below the level of a National Premier team.
“The chairman would come in after we’d won a game, and say: ‘Come on now!’ ” Danny said, “but he really meant it. It got to the stage where he was happy when we lost.”
Lincoln suffer their first defeat in seven games against Barrow at Sincil Bank but will be among the favourites for promotion
BRADLEY ORMESHER FOR THE TIMES
The brothers have been used to working hard with no money and decrepit facilities for a long time. The change of surroundings is stark. “At Braintree the kit was always damp and the changing rooms were like Saddam Hussein’s cave,” Danny jokes. “We trained on a little bit of grass by the car park . . .”
“It might as well have been the car park,” Nicky says. Danny continues: “We had a mantra, like the All Blacks: ‘no dickheads’. No energy-sappers. We used to give them 45 seconds to shut the door, have a moan up, then it’s done.”
Their budget at Lincoln dwarfs Braintree’s, which was just £185,000, with the highest-paid player on £350 a week. Attendances are up 25 per cent since their arrival — more than 3,500 were at Sincil Bank on Saturday — and although Lincoln were top of the National Premier before the 2-1 defeat by Barrow, they are keen to manage expectations.
The brothers are relishing full-time football. “Even if results haven’t worked out, you’re aware of what a fantastic life it is to do something you’re so passionate about as a job,” Nicky says.
In a nutshell:
Nickname The Imps/Red Imps
Club crest Image of the Lincoln Imp, which can be found on a wall inside Lincoln Cathedral. Legend tells of the creature being sent to the cathedral by Satan, only to be turned to stone by an angel
Ground/Capacity Sincil Bank, 10,120
Price of a programme The Imp, £3, 46 pages
Price of a pie Steak, beef & onion, cheese & potato, chicken & mushroom, all £3.10
Price of a pint No alcohol sold inside the stadium
Weirdest thing in the club shop Lincoln City toothbrush, 50p
Mascot Poacher the Imp, after the old song the Lincolnshire Poacher
One for the future Alex Woodyard, 23-year-old England C midfielder played under the Cowley brothers at both Concord Rangers and Braintree Town
Record signing Dean Walling, £75,000 from Carlisle in 1997
Highest league finish Fifth in the Second Division, 1901-02
Moment in history Fourth Division champions in 1976, accruing 74 points, a record under the system of two points for a win
Greatest player The late Andy Graver. Striker scored 143 goals in 274 appearances in two spells in the 1950s
