After a disappointing start to their League Two campaign, Lincoln City have once again had to delve into the managerial marketplace.
Chris Sutton spent exactly one year in charge of the Imps, but during the former Chelsea and Celtic striker’s tenure the club rarely looked like they would achieve their ultimate goal of moving up the football pyramid.
But now the Sincil Bank board have brought in a man with the necessary experience to take the Imps to the level to which they are aiming, the Npower Championship.
Steve Tilson has signed a two-and-a-half year contract with the club and is exactly the kind of manager Lincoln have been craving since the late Keith Alexander left the club four years ago.
44-year-old Tilson managed Southend United for seven years, from 2003 to 2010, during which time he guided the Shrimpers from League Two to the Championship. Lincoln are hoping he can repeat the trick at Sincil Bank.
In Tilson’s 358 games in charge of Southend he won 142, lost 128 and drew 88, giving him a win percentage of 39%. And while those statistics might seem below average, it must be remembered that Southend played at least a third of those games in the second-tier of English football against teams with much larger budgets than they enjoyed.
And budget is the key word at Lincoln where Tilson will be expected to achieve success with closely monitored resources. The League Two outfit were a team regularly threatened with administration at the turn of the last decade, but are now one of the best run clubs in the country.
The new Lincoln boss would do well to learn from his predecessor Alexander and take things back to basics.
During his reign at Lincoln, Alexander secured playoff football every season, and while promotion eluded them, it is significantly more than the club have managed to achieve over recent years, with the team slipping into mid-table obscurity with an eye always on the relegation dogfight.
Alexander achieved great things at Lincoln because he was respected, he was not scared to give young players or non-league footballers a chance and his team always did the little things right. While his critics would often say his was not a style for the purists, it was nevertheless effective.
Tilson will put his own spin on various aspects of Lincoln’s game, but if he can take the current crop of players at Sincil Bank back to basics he can be successful in achieving the promotions that would mean so much to the club.
