Former Grimsby manager Paul Hurst has selection headaches ahead of the Checkatrade Trophy final this weekend, but former Imp Jon Nolan is set to face the club he left with a right face on a couple of seasons ago.
Whilst this is out first appearance at the National Stadium it is the fourth time Shrewsbury have been there, but crucially they’ve never won. Hurt’s hopes of becoming the first Shrews manager to triumph there have taken a knock with Skipper Abu Ogogo, centre-half Toto Nsiala and winger Alex Rodman are all injury doubts.
“You can never look too far ahead but I had an idea for a team to perform and start – I’ve got a few question marks now,” Hurst told the Shropshire Star. “That’s all you can ask. Before the (Oxford) game I said about people stepping up to the mark. That was two-fold, one the players that have been playing to take more leadership after losing Toto and Abs – who are clearly leaders – to step into their shoes. The other to those that haven’t played as much football, not to go out there feeling massively under pressure so they don’t perform, but to take the opportunity in front of them and put on good performances.”
Hurst is no stranger to Lincoln, nor to Wembley having guided Grimsby there on a couple of occasions, including the play off final which they won to regain their Football League status. There will be plenty of old rivalries to be settled with Nolan also in the side, as well as former Imps targets Stefan Payne and Sam Jones.
The last time the two sides met was one of the lowest moments of my time as an Imps fan, Salop ran out 5-1 winners at Sincil Bank in a game which saw us 4-1 down inside 20 minutes. It was a Steve Tilson special, an awful night that serves only as a reminder of how low things got.
Hurst admitted there’s still some homework to be done on Lincoln, but as they’re in the middle of a promotion battle, he’ll be taking a few days off. Careful Hurst, you snooze, you lose.
“I’ll allow myself a couple of days to take a step back from everything. We’ll really get back to work on Friday in terms of real preparation for Lincoln. There’s some homework to do from myself but we’ve got a couple of games days everyone can have a little bit of chill time. Certain things you’re committed to, the press day on Wednesday (today), a long day saying the same things to a lot of different people. Then it’s a case of training and getting down to our hotel. I think that’s when it’ll start hitting home that we’ve got a final to try and take care of.”
Somehow I doubt that Mr Cowley will be taking time off before this game. Perhaps this is an example of the differences between good managers and the great ones.
To be fair Hurts has done even better than Cowley to date, and is looking at automatic promotion this year too.