Lincoln City head coaches Tom Shaw and Chris Cohen have shared their personal highlights of the season so far as part of our 500th episode special, dropping on Sunday morning at 6:17am.
The duo might seem from the outside to be unorthodox in footballing terms, but the early signs are that things are working well. With a decent points haul and some good performances, City have surprised the critics, and already, fans have some good moments to enjoy. Winning at Preston and Mikkel Ladefoged’s goal against Southampton stand out for me, but what about for Chris and Tom?
During our chat, we asked both coaches to pick out a moment from their first eight games in charge, whether on the pitch, around the training ground or elsewhere.
“It’s very difficult,” Tom said.
“There have been some really good moments already. There was a moment away at Bristol City where we had an amazing result and performance, and we were just getting ready to go and debrief the players.
“I saw two or three members of our staff sprinting down to be part of what was going to be in the dressing room. This is a hamster wheel of a job, an amazing job, and it was just a moment where we thought, “It means so much to so many people.”
“We’ve had some terrific moments with the supporters, who’ve been phenomenal. Chris has got to start doing some fist pumps again at some point.
“Just that moment, knowing the work that goes on in this building, and now we’re in this privileged role where we’re guiding people, watching what it meant to these members of staff was really nice. Blimey, it means as much to everybody as it does in our own heads.
“Some fabulous moments on the pitch, and the support was excellent. But probably, personally, just watching these fellas sprinting down.”
Chris picked out a couple, and you’ll have to wait to hear the first (unless you’re a Patreon), but his second was a moment after we lost 4-0 in the cup.
“We came in on the Thursday after, and me and Tom were driving on the way in, thinking, ‘Right, we’re going to have to pick everyone up today. We’ve just lost 4-0.’
“We keep telling these players we know they’re capable of competing against anyone. It was probably a real off day for all of us, us as staff definitely included.
“I just watched a group of players go after each other from the moment we blew the first whistle. They just went after each other. Every moment of the session, it was loud, it was aggressive. There was no one feeling sorry for themselves.
“We just looked at each other and went, ‘We’re going to be sound this season. We’re going to be fine. If it comes down to personality and heart, we will win loads and loads of games of football.’
“For me, coming off the training ground at that point, I’ve always been in awe of these players, but that was a special moment for us, definitely.”
While it’s nice to pick a moment from the opening few games, they are just that: opening fixtures. Nothing has been won or lost, and Chris was eager to stress that we’re only at the start of a journey.
“We’ve just got to be so careful,” he said.
“We’ve had a wonderful start to the season, performance-wise and points-tally-wise. We’ve got to be really careful: we’re eight games in, we’ve got 38 games left. This is such a small data sample.
“We won’t be resting on anything we’ve done. We know there are areas we’ve been able to work on over the last few weeks where we think we can improve massively. That gives us a better chance of winning on a Saturday afternoon or a Tuesday or Wednesday night.
“It’s been a really solid start to the season, which has been great. We both feel there’s loads more to come.”
The full conversation offers plenty more on their partnership, the move into the Championship and the journey that brought them to this point. You can hear it all in our 500th episode special on Sunday morning, but if you don’t wish to wait, the video is live now on Patreon.
Comments Welcome!