Lincoln City manager Danny Cowley has revealed that he discussed former manager Graham Taylor with his players before their incredible FA Cup win against Ipswich Town.
City completed a historic FA Cup shock last night as they dumped Mick McCarthy’s Ipswich Town out of the competition.
The Imps sat 59 places below the Tractor Boys before the encounter but that didn’t stop Cowley’s men from dominating proceedings. Nathan Arnold sealed a last minute winner to ensure that the Imps would be in the fourth round for the first time in 41 years.
The reward for winning against Ipswich is a home game against high-flying Championship side, Brighton and Hove Albion.
Graham Taylor, who passed away last week, was the manager in that famous 1975/76 season and before the game the Imps fans held up a banner reading, ‘As one passes another rises,’ with Graham Taylor and Danny Cowley pictured side by side.
There was also a fantastic light tribute in the 76th minute for the late Lincoln City and England manager.
After the game, Imps manager Cowley talked of the legacy left behind by Taylor: “We spoke about Graham Taylor in the week, I knew I’d get asked a lot of questions and I thought it was important to remind myself about the work that he’d done, that fantastic 1975/76 season and what he did at Watford was incredible.”
“For me the true character of the man was shown in a press conference when he was getting hammered by the tabloids and how he kept his emotions in that moment, he never let it become personal and he always understood they had a job to do.
“I really admired watching him in an interview 20 years later and you could still sense the pain in his eyes, but he’d never let it show and to go from Lincoln City to England manager was an amazing achievement.
“We spoke about Graham in the lead up to the game but I think in the big games like this it is really important to take the emotion of out it.”
In the light of £500,000 a week deals being offered in the Chinese Super League, Cowley also gave his opinion on the ridiculous amounts of money being thrown about in football.
“In the world of football there is some people at the top that are engulfed by money and that aren’t always good role models for the game,” Cowley said.
“We always talk about us as human beings, it’s people that win you football matches and we are lucky to have such a focused group who want to better themselves.
“It frightens me just how much money is involved in football, it’s going to become so detached from reality and people will fall out of love with the game.”
Cowley finally went on to express his pleasure in how the club are currently performing:
“I’m immensely proud of this football club. Everyone who works behind the scenes really seems to have this club at heart.
“The players went toe-to-toe with a Championship club and came out on top. Hopefully they’ll be inspired by nights like this and hopefully this will become their reality.
“This win is for the people of Lincoln. Football is about emotion, it’s about what it does to people, you saw what it meant to the fans, you can see it in their faces and that is what inspires me to keep working hard.”