Gimps

Quoted from TheRealJohnLewis

If i was a betting man, I would say they will finish above us next season.

I think you've given us an insight into why you're not a betting man.

Cheltenham have had the wrong strategy after promotion.  They then belatedly brought new players in and have still struggled.  Maybe the club are just "wrong"?

Bristol Rovers took the same approach and had great success. They kept broadly the same players that got them promoted from NL.  They got them automatic promotion to division 1 in the last few minutes of last season.

They did manage to hold on to top scorer Taylor (cheating B.....), which made a massive difference.  Shame (?) that he was poached by Bristol City after a contract clause activated of £300K.

Very interesting to see what Lincoln do.  They have the money to bring in good-quality players.  

The difference between the Gas and Cheltenham is that Rovers were able to sustain a better squad having a much bigger fan base (3 times the attendance) so they didn't need to make major changes to the squad that won promotion from the Conference. OK they may have just squeaked it in 2015 (with the help of Ross Joyce) but sometimes it takes longer for a bigger outfit to get properly into gear.

The other difference with Brizzle was early last year they got new Jordanian owners who secured every player and then gave them pay rises and a promotion bonus structure, so rather than everyone kicking back Clarke managed it really well and turned their financial security into momentum, cheating bar stewards  

If I was a Lincoln fan (god forbid) I would be worried that the Cowley's are proven Non-league managers but know little and have no experience of The EFL. Experience and contacts go a long way, Bignot showed his non-league bias whilst at Town, and it did not seem to work very well. (But we will never know now). Yes you can pluck the odd star from non league, but you can not build a whole team of them.

Quoted from Grantham_Mariner

If I was a Lincoln fan (god forbid) I would be worried that the Cowley's are proven Non-league managers but know little and have no experience of The EFL. Experience and contacts go a long way, Bignot showed his non-league bias whilst at Town, and it did not seem to work very well. (But we will never know now). Yes you can pluck the odd star from non league, but you can not build a whole team of them.

I'm sure their FA Cup exploits didn't go unnoticed and got attention of the contacts you speak of both managers and prospective players. I don't mind saying that what them two blokes have with Braintree and now with Lincoln is nothing short of amazing. We took RS from Non-League did we not and that wasn't an utter shambles.

Quoted from Grantham_Mariner

If I was a Lincoln fan (god forbid) I would be worried that the Cowley's are proven Non-league managers but know little and have no experience of The EFL. Experience and contacts go a long way, Bignot showed his non-league bias whilst at Town, and it did not seem to work very well. (But we will never know now). Yes you can pluck the odd star from non league, but you can not build a whole team of them.

Beat Oldham, Ipswich, Brighton, Burnley & held Arsenal for 45 minutes.
Most made the mistake of thinking they could swap the whole team around and beat us.
If Arsenal had put out the side that played Sutton I would have fancied us to beat them.
Their prep work is amazing at least championship standard, Arsenal staff were very complimentary.
The back up team from the chef all the way through is top notch.
With their approach I can't see L2 being an issue but who knows.

Quoted from Balthazar Bullitt

I think you've given us an insight into why you're not a betting man.

If they (Cowley) can finish above us with Braintree with a budget of £2.37, then doing it, with a lot more money, with Lincoln should be no problem.

They've got a manager on the up, we've got one on the way down, I guess, only time will tell!

At the time with braintree they were also only able to work part-time remember, Christ knows how they would hav done working full time like hurst.

Quoted from Helgy

Beat Oldham, Ipswich, Brighton, Burnley & held Arsenal for 45 minutes.
Most made the mistake of thinking they could swap the whole team around and beat us.
If Arsenal had put out the side that played Sutton I would have fancied us to beat them.
Their prep work is amazing at least championship standard, Arsenal staff were very complimentary.
The back up team from the chef all the way through is top notch.
With their approach I can't see L2 being an issue but who knows.

You said it yourself, you beat the reserve sides of most of those teams. Not that it isn't a great achievement, it is. But you beat reserve sides who were probably struggling to motivate themselves for a banana skin game against non-league opposition whereas your side had nothing to lose. Completely different to beating teams week in and week out in a league.

If you keep the Cowleys I think you will do well next season but you will need to do major surgery to your side. Your two highest scorers are Rhead and Arnold. Rhead struggled in the league with Mansfield previously and will be 33, you can't rely on him again. You also won't have Lee Angol next season so you'll need at least two strikers. Paul Hurst released Arnold because he didn't think he would be able to perform week in, week out at FL level and he's never managed to before. Would he be up to it? On his day definitely but he's too inconsistent in my opinion.
Farman is a non-league keeper and I know a lot of your own fans see him as a weak link. He's no better than McKeown in my opinion. Waterfall, for all your protestations to the contrary, is a poor man's Shaun Pearson. You've got Bradley Wood at right back who just isn't a good enough footballer to be starting in a team at the top end of L2. A lot of your better players such as Billy Knott and Harry Anderson are on loan so may not be there next season.

The arrogance to suggest L2 won't be an "issue" is laughable. The difference in quality between the FL and the NL is huge. Just look at Cheltenham and they don't have a mug for a manager by any means. The NL has been a lower quality overall in the last two or three seasons compared to when we first went down. Lincoln have obviously done fantastically well in the league but you've hardly been steamrollering teams, most of your wins since the turn of the year have been by a single goal along with the odd 2 or 3 nil loss at places like Barrow and Boreham Wood. Like I said, keep the Cowleys and I think you'll do well next season but only if they do some major surgery to your squad.