Michael Skubala has passed the 100-game mark, only the third manager to do so in 20 years, and milestone that is worth mentioning.
It became the focus of his pre-match press conference for the Manchester United game tonight, and he was quick to play down comparisons. Since Keith Alexander, only Danny Cowley and Michael Appleton have passed 100 games, but any mention of creating history was quickly swatted away.
“I don’t know about that,” he replied when asked in his presser. “I’m just trying to do what we do every day. We’ve got a great group of players over the years I’ve been here.
“Staff have been fantastic. Even the new staff we’ve been in, coaching staff are amazing. It’s a massive team effort.
“Obviously, I front that thing, but we’ve got the club, the staff, the leadership, the owners, everybody at this club is an amazing group of people who work really hard every day to try and develop the club and move it in the right direction. So I think there’s always loads of cogs behind the scenes that help you.”
Some might class that as humble, but in reality, the game has changed since the days of Keith, John Beck and Steve Thompson, the three others to have passed 100 games since 1990. That’s the march of progress, something that Michael explored in the interview.
“I think when I came to the club, I knew it was a really stable, good club with good training facilities and a good team that you can get behind, good fan base. It had everything of the core ingredients.
“I do remember my first game away at Stevenage. That was a different experience, but it’s a tough place to go. But we want to keep developing things, and I think even at the training ground here, you see year on year, the ambition of myself and the club is that we keep moving forward with small things.
“Incremental steps to keep developing the club and I think we’ve done that on the pitch, off the pitch, around the training ground, the club. Everything’s doing it and doing that way. That’s our strategy really, to keep moving in the right direction with small little steps.”
Of course, moving in the right direction is helped with the likes of Chris Cohen, Scott Fry, David Preece and Tom Shaw offering support, but it’s not about one man, nor three, but a whole team. Some are people fans might not instantly put a name to, but as the figurehead of the current setup, Michael wanted to highlight how important everyone was in the Imps structure.
“I think when you want to create something, it’s always about the people. It’s always about the people you have and it’s always about the culture that you try and build and we’ve got an amazing culture here.
“Every day we try and work as hard as we can. I don’t think many teams will outwork us on the training pitch. We’re out-thinkers in terms of the coaching staff. Again, the coaching staff, the medical staff, everybody at the EPC works really hard for the players to give them the best opportunity.
“I think that’s why we love it. That’s why we’re in the job. And then hopefully on the Saturday when it comes, three points or get into the next round, whatever the competition is. But that’s our ethos. Our ethos is to work hard every day and smile while we’re doing it.”
At present, there are plenty of smiles on the terraces, and that’s the best way to ensure 100 games become 150, 200 and beyond.
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