Lincoln City supporters will flock to Sincil Bank this season to watch their side play in the second tier of English football for the first time in 64 years.
After our historic promotion last season, breaking multiple records and winning League One with 103 points, attention now turns to attacking the Championship.
With Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw at the helm, two men who have experienced the best that Sincil Bank has to offer, capacity crowds will aim to make it difficult for visiting teams.
The pair, speaking to BBC Radio Lincolnshire, were keen to highlight a couple of moments from the Imps faithful that stuck in their minds from the past few years.
“We understand the challenges in front of us, but there’s no fear,” Cohen said. “A moment that I’ll never forget is the Portsmouth game a couple of years ago, when we went out of the play-offs. In the last 10 minutes, they were singing to the boys and being appreciative, even though we were in a really tough moment.
“I think if we can keep that through the tougher times, we’ve got an unbelievable opportunity to go and be special at the next level. We’ll need you [the fans] to be there in the good moments, but definitely in the tougher ones as well.
“We want the ground to be a really intimidating place,” Shaw added. “Anybody who was at the first half of the Chelsea game, that is the feel we’ve got to create. World Cup winners and world champions buckled under that atmosphere at Sincil Bank.”
Both head coaches bring different levels of experience to Lincoln this season. While Shaw has the background in the hotseat at Gainsborough Trinity, Cohen has the expertise in the Championship from his time with Stoke City. Additionally, he also knows the second tier of English football as a player from his time with Nottingham Forest.
That provides a balanced combination, one that left no doubt in the mind of Cohen that they would hold the same title.
“I think the dynamic would have changed had one of us been appointed head coach and one of us assistant. That would have been harder. From the outside looking in, it doesn’t feel logical. But when you actually talk and walk through what we do, it is completely logical that we just make the best decision together.
“We’ll do it and stand together, and if it’s right, we’ll live it together. There’s not going to be a point where I’m going to say Tom [Shaw] did this and I did this or anything like that. It’s just never been in our nature anyway. We’ll back each other and the group to the hill.”
In the early stages, it will take time to determine who is best equipped to handle specific aspects of the job. However, having worked together at Lincoln for an extended period of time, Shaw emphasised the need for similarities from the Skubala era in the beginning.
“I think over time we’ll decide who’s a little bit more appropriate for certain parts of the role, but the football side will be very similar. The way we’ve worked our training week, physical loading with the sports science team, we’d be foolish to come away from that.
“We’ll be looking to grow, evolve, and make it even better by sharpening our tools as coaches and practitioners. Our relationship will change slightly because we’ll be picking the team in their eyes. We’ve got a lovely rapport with these lads. As long as we continue to have their best interests, we think that will be healthy moving forward. The football provision and the way it’s delivered will be very similar.”
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