Chris Cohen says Shaun Pearson’s arrival has completed the Lincoln City coaching team, revealing the former Grimsby Town assistant was one of two candidates we were particularly keen to bring in during the summer.
The first report of our interest in Pearson came back in June, when Sky Sports News suggested negotiations were taking place between the two clubs. Now, following his addition to the staff this week, Cohen has explained how highly he and Tom Shaw rated him during their search for support behind the scenes.
Speaking after our victory at Bristol City, Cohen was asked whether Pearson’s arrival completed the team off the pitch. His response began with a joke about our recruitment requirements extending beyond the playing squad.
“Exactly that. That was exactly our message, me and Tom, to the team yesterday, is that we’ve also got our prerequisite where we have to sign tall players. So we’ve got the same where we have to sign tall members of staff as well. So, over 6’3″, which is nice.”
There was a more serious explanation behind the appointment, with Cohen pointing to Pearson’s coaching work at Blundell Park. Our pre-season meetings with the Mariners have clearly left an impression, giving the staff an opportunity to see his influence from the opposite dugout.
“But no, Shaun’s got a wonderful CV in terms of the work he did at Grimsby. Beats us every pre-season, and he does a lot of the work there. So we were hoping that we were going to be able to get him to join us.”
Pearson moved into coaching after retiring as a player in 2023, remaining at Grimsby as part of Paul Hurst’s backroom team. He had already gained experience through academy coaching and scouting reports before taking on a more prominent role with the first team.
He also had a spell in joint caretaker charge alongside Ben Davies following the departures of Hurst and Chris Doig in October 2023. That experience formed part of the background we outlined when the initial links emerged in June, with Pearson having progressed to assistant head coach at Blundell Park.
Cohen revealed that the summer recruitment process had involved several candidates, but Pearson and Paul McShane were the two men he and Shaw particularly wanted alongside them.
“We met a lot of candidates for the role in the summer, and the two that we were desperate for, or really wanted, were Paul McShane and Shaun Pearson. So now me and Tom both feel very, very lucky that we’ve got these two great blokes with us.”
The 37-year-old brings considerable experience of the game below the Championship. As a player, his career took him through Spalding United, Stamford and Boston United before his first move to Grimsby in 2011.
He was part of the Mariners squad that secured promotion back to the Football League in 2016, before spending four years at Wrexham. A return to Blundell Park followed in 2021, with another National League promotion coming the following year.
There is also an existing connection within our staff, with Joe Hutchinson having worked at Grimsby during Pearson’s time there. For Cohen and Shaw, though, the clearest endorsement is that he was someone they identified and wanted during the summer. With both Pearson and McShane now alongside them, our joint head coaches have the support team they were hoping to assemble for the Championship campaign.
His arrival has been complemented over the summer by the return of Logan Hughes. Hughes worked as our first-team performance analyst in 2023/24, but left after our charge to the play-offs to work with the New Zealand national team. He was the performance analyst lead for the All Whites at the World Cup, but returned to the club last month in a slightly different role as First Team Coach Analyst.
There has been no official announcement, but Logan has been spotted at games over the course of the last eight weeks and adds even more depth to an already impressive backroom staff supporting Chris and Tim in the Championship.
Comments Welcome!