Danny Cowley has a million reasons to be cheerful about Lincoln City’s historic run to the Emirates FA Cup quarter finals.
The 39-year-old guided the Imps to a last-eight meeting with Premier League giants Arsenal last season. It was the first time a non-League club had reached that stage of the competition for 103 years.
And as well as a host of plaudits and guest appearances on The One Show, Lincoln’s success brought with it a financial reward which will help the club grow in the coming years.
The Sincil Bank outfit earned over £1m in prize money and TV broadcast fees, as well as an upturn in gate receipts once their Cup fairytale, and League Two promotion push, began to reach fever pitch.
Cowley said: “The finances are a game changer for a club of our size.
“The main aim is to use last year as a legacy moving forward. We want sustained success. We want to invest the money wisely. We want to spend it on the infrastructure of the club.
“We’re just about to build our own training ground and we’re only a few years away from moving in to a new stadium, so we want to use that money for the future of the club.”
He continued: “At the moment we train at a school one or two days a week and at an Army barracks the other two days.
“I spend most of my life in other peoples’ back gardens or in stinging nettles fetching balls.
“To have our own training ground and a facility where we can develop our own players will be massive for the future of this club.
“If and when that happens we’ll be on a level playing field with other clubs at this level.
“There’s no doubt about it; what last year’s FA Cup run did for us financially is absolutely massive for this football club.”
Lincoln travel to AFC Wimbledon in the first round on Saturday, with the winning club receiving £18,000 from The FA prize fund.
