12 Management Duos From History As Lincoln City Appoint Two Head Coaches

Danny and Nicky Cowley

Danny and Nicky Cowley were not joint managers in title, but any look at football double acts would feel incomplete without them. Officially, Danny was the manager and Nicky his assistant. In reality, they were spoken about, understood and remembered as a pair, and at Lincoln City that distinction always felt more technical than emotional.

They arrived from Braintree Town in May 2016, stepping into a club that had spent six years outside the Football League and had become used to disappointment. What followed was not just promotion, but a full-scale change in standards. We won the National League title in 2016/17, sealing our return to the Football League with two games to spare, and did it during a season that also brought the most famous FA Cup run in the club’s history.

We beat Ipswich Town, Brighton & Hove Albion and Burnley before losing 5-0 at Arsenal in the quarter-final. That made us the first non-league club in more than a century to reach the last eight of the competition, and it changed how the club was viewed far beyond Sincil Bank. It brought money, attention and belief, but more than anything, it accelerated a rebuild that had already begun.

The following season brought Lincoln’s first-ever Wembley appearance, beating Shrewsbury Town 1-0 in the EFL Trophy final thanks to Elliott Whitehouse’s goal. In 2018/19, the Cowleys delivered another title, guiding City to the League Two championship and a return to the third tier for the first time since 1999. By then, the club had been transformed.

Their final weeks at Lincoln came early in the 2019/20 League One season. City started with three league wins without conceding, beat Huddersfield Town in the League Cup, and then, after a defeat at Wycombe Wanderers, Danny and Nicky left for Huddersfield. It was a bruising ending, but it does not alter the scale of what came before.

They were not just a manager and an assistant. They were the most influential football partnership Lincoln had seen in decades.