DANNY Cowley’s name will always be synonymous with the FA Cup.
And the Colchester United head coach is eager to make more memories, in the world-famous competition.
Cowley helped Lincoln City make history in the 2016-17 season when he helped them become the first non-League side to reach the quarter-finals in more than a century.
The Imps stunned Premier League side Burnley and also knocked out Championship teams Brighton and Hove Albion and Ipswich Town, before eventually bowing out to Arsenal in the last eight in front of a crowd of nearly 60,000, at the Emirates.
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“I love the FA Cup…for lower league clubs, it can be life changing as we’ve seen with the run that we had at Lincoln City,” said Cowley, who is preparing his Colchester side to take on League Two rivals Swindon Town tomorrow in the FA Cup first round.
“It changed the journey and direction of travel for that football club that is for sure, because they were a team who had been in the National League for six years and off the back of getting to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, they created an unbelievable amount of finance which supported them in getting a brand new training ground and rebuilding the infrastructure of the club, both in terms of human resource and also in terms of facilities.
“Now they’re an established League One club; I don’t think we should forget that and I don’t think the FA should forget that (in terms of scrapping replays).
“We drew at home to Guiseley in the fourth qualifying round before (getting to) the first round proper and then we drew in the third round at Ipswich, who scored in the last minute to peg us back to 2-2 at Portman Road.
“I’m not sure we’d have survived extra-time, that day.
“We took them back to Sincil Bank for the replay and beat them 1-0 in the replay.
“I understand a lot of these decisions are I suppose made with the elite clubs in mind but what makes the FA Cup the greatest cup competition in the world?
“Not Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea in it; what makes it the greatest cup competition in the world is the fact that you can start at the extra preliminary round and win eight ties to get to the first round proper - which I’ve done by the way with Concord Rangers - and win more ties than Arsenal, who won it winning one less game than us.
“That’s ultimately what makes it the best cup competition in the world, the amount of teams and the amount of players that get to participate.”
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The magnificent FA Cup run Lincoln enjoyed as a non-league club in the 2016-17 campaign should not be underestimated.
The Imps were the talk of the town that season with their magnificent run to the quarter-finals, made even more impressive by the fact that for Danny and Nicky Cowley, it was their first campaign in full-time football, having left their teaching jobs in Essex to take charge at Sincil Bank in the summer of 2016.
Cowley said: “You leave a career in teaching where you pretty much have to commit murder to lose your job and go into the world of football management, where you know that you are only four, five, six games away from the sack, which is just the nature of the game.
“At that time, I’d lived eight years at Concord Rangers and a year at Braintree, so I did feel pretty indestructible really although I can remember my Dad highlighting the potential ramifications if it didn’t go well.
“I loved teaching and we had some brilliant times at FitzWimarc School but when that opportunity came, it was to take it.
“We just gained momentum in the FA Cup and we were in a good place as going in from about October, we went 18 unbeaten and the FA Cup was obviously part of that run.
“We beat Guiseley, then Altrincham and then played League One club Oldham at home on the Monday night, with the game on television.
“At the time, the crowds were about 3,500-4,000 supporters, having gone from around 2,000 and I can remember the ownership and everyone being really pleased.
“It was a really foggy night; we blew them away and were 3-0 up after about 20 minutes and there were around 5,500 there that night.
“We felt then that something special could be happening and we drew Ipswich away, who were a Championship team then managed by Mick McCarthy.
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“We went 2-1 up and it was probably our best performance of the season to date and should have won but they had Tom Lawrence, who we did everything in our preparation to stop but still scored two.
“They scored in the last minute to make it 2-2 and you think the opportunity is probably gone but in the replay, which was live on the BBC, it was 0-0 and looked like it was going to extra-time and they had a free-kick on the edge of the area.
“Tom Lawrence hit it into our wall, we broke and it was a brilliant goal – Nathan Arnold had the energy, I don’t know how, to run the length of the pitch, round the goalkeeper and score.
“That was a good day.
“Then we drew Brighton, who were top of the Championship and we were 1-0 down and I remember in the half-time team talk saying ‘damage limitation’ and ‘make it competitive’ but the boys didn’t listen to any of it and we won 3-1!
“It was a brilliant second-half performance.
“We drew Burnley away – they really reminded me of a Premier League version of my Concord Rangers team and we left Burnley on the ball.
“Joey Barton, who was brilliant for half an hour, ended up getting into a fight with Matt Rhead and got caught up with that and lost his focus in the game and we won 1-0 with a late goal from one of our set-piece routines.
“That set up the Arsenal game, which was probably the life-changing moment for the club because of the funding – there were 63,000 at the Emirates that day so we had the share of the game, Vanarama, the league sponsor, did the shirt and gave us good money for that and the television money at that stage was huge.
“We made the best part of two million just from that one game and it was a pretty crazy time.
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“Even against Arsenal in the quarter-finals at 45 minutes, we were 0-0 and we’d maybe had the better chances and the crowd were turning on Arsenal on the day but we ran out of energy, in the end.
“It was a pretty crazy time and the media stuff was mental - I remember The One Show coming to our house!
“It gave us so much confidence in the league, because you’re playing against these top teams and getting instant feedback.
“Probably in all of those games, you wouldn’t say we didn’t deserve to win in any of them.”
Cowley takes charge of his first FA Cup game as Colchester head coach tomorrow and is hoping a positive result at Swindon will help kick-start their League Two campaign.
Cowley added: “I think it’s always a good opportunity to play in the FA Cup.
“It’s the greatest cup competition in the world.
“It’s a cup competition that’s been very kind to us in the past and we’ve had some brilliant moments in it.
“For us as a group of players and staff, we’re really looking forward to the challenge of Swindon on Saturday.”
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