Lincoln City manager Danny Cowley has said that Lincoln must not take their current position for granted, emphasising how hard they have worked as a group to get to where they are now.

The Imps remain top of the EFL League Two table despite having picked up just 2 points out of a possible 9 in the last fortnight, but that could all change this weekend.

Cowley on the club’s position

Despite this poor run of form, Danny Cowley highlighted the positive, in that they still remain in a great position a third of the way into the season.

And Cowley believes that the club should be proud of the long-term, rather than be disappointed with the short-term, and that fans must believe in the players’ ability to help spur them on.

He said:

“We are in a really good place. We’re still top of the league, which is something that I think we should be really proud of.
“We certainly haven’t got any god given right to be top of this league and you’ll know, I’ve said this a lot, I hate entitlement. So we have to remember where we are and where we’ve come from.
“And we have to remember what our strongest attribute as a club is, and for me, that is our unity and the way that we stick together.”

On the fans, Cowley said:

“I’ve got no problem with people having opinions over decisions, team selection, about which player they like or don’t like.
“But when they put on a Lincoln City shirt and step over the white line and the ball starts to roll, we need, like we always have, their unconditional support for all the players.
“Just remember the players are human beings and if they have your support, they will respond much more positively as football is very confidence based.”

Cowley on Colchester defeat

Last weekend saw Lincoln slip to their 3rd defeat of the season, losing 1-0 to promotion-chasing Colchester United, capping of miserable end to October.

And Cowley believes there is a sense of frustration amongst the club, because they know that they are capable of better.

On the game, Cowley said:

“We didn’t get to the performance levels that we wanted to, we felt really frustrated and disappointed with ourselves. We always try to do the very best for our supporters and we weren’t able to.
“In terms of our supporters, if you travel to Colchester and give up your hard earned time and money, you deserve an opinion, and we have to accept the criticism and use it to make us stronger.
“We know how tough this division is, and we know that everyone can beat everyone. But we’ve had a really good week on the training ground and we are really looking forward to the reaction of the group come Saturday.”

The Imps had dropped points in just 3 of their first 13 games this season. However. following the recent run of results, that total has doubled to 6 in 16 games.

Whereas, Colchester have won their last 4 at home in all competitions, and have also now joined Lincoln as the league’s top scorers with 30 goals in total.

Cowley on Forest Green

Cowley’s Lincoln welcome a tricky test to Sincil Bank on Saturday in the form of Mark Cooper’s Forest Green Rovers, who won away at high-flying Exeter City last weekend.

Rovers have impressed so far this season, with the main focus being that they have only lost 1 league game, and even that was a stoppage-time winner. However, they have drawn a massive 9 times, which is the joint-most in the league.

And Cowley expects a stern test against a side that he believes have a ‘natural rivalry’ with Lincoln.

On Saturday’s opponents, Cowley said:

“It’s one that we look forward to, we’ve always enjoyed our encounters with Forest Green, there’s obviously a natural rivalry between the two clubs as we’ve had similar pathways over the last two years.
“We respect Mark Cooper and we respect Forest Green, they did brilliantly to get out the National League, it’s a really difficult division to get out of, as we know ourselves.
“They’re in a really good position this year, they have an incredible record and have come off the back of a very good away result against Exeter, and we expect to see the very best of Forest Green come Saturday.”

Lincoln have picked up 10 wins so far this season, one of only three sides in the entire EFL to have achieved the feat, but in order to get an eleventh, they will need to inflict just a second defeat on a Forest Green side that will no doubt be one of the biggest tests of the season so far.

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