Grayson: Michael Appleton has tough job following in footsteps of Cowley brothers at Lincoln

The former Pool manager took the reins at Sincil Bank at the start of the week and his first game in charge comes at Bloomfield Road tomorrow night.

Appleton takes over from Danny and Nicky Cowley, who left to join Huddersfield Town after enjoying unprecedented success with the Imps.

The Cowleys led Lincoln to promotion from the National League in their first season while guiding the Lincolnshire outfit to the quarter final of the FA Cup.

The management duo won the EFL Trophy the following season while finishing in the League Two play-offs, before going onto lift the title last season.

Lincoln now sit in 10th place in League One, three points adrift of the Seasiders.

Grayson told The Gazette: “I think whoever is going to go into Lincoln after the Cowley brothers is going to find it very difficult because of the massive impact they had - both on and off the pitch.

“Full credit to them, they’ve decided it was the right time to move on and whoever came in was going to find it difficult following in their footsteps.

“But it’s a good position to be in because, from the outside, the club looks like it’s financially stable, it’s got a good training base, they got promotion last year and they’ve still started the season okay despite their recent results.

“Their form hasn’t been great in terms of results but it’s still a football club on the up.”

When asked about Appleton's short tenure at Bloomfield Road, which last just 64 days, Grayson said: “I don’t know a lot really, it was only a month or so wasn’t it?

“Michael has been around a few clubs. He’s an experienced coach and manager who was at West Brom last year as the assistant manager.

“He will be looking to try and put his print on their team as quickly as possible which is not easy when you’ve only got four or five days to do that.”