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THE journey’s not over, it’s only just beginning. Lincoln’s irresistible 9,000 supporters will always look back and wonder what if. What if Theo Walcott’s shot hadn’t been so heavily deflected into the net right in front of them in first-half added time?
What if Nathan Arnold’s moment of magic on the half hour had met the net and not the glove as Petr Cech pushed his shot around the post?
Thing is, Danny Cowley doesn’t do ‘what ifs’. He does emotion by the bucket load, but regrets? He’s more interested in Tuesday’s visit to York City.
“I’m still so proud,” he beamed. “We have to take a lot from our first half performance.
“We really restricted them and had a big chance ourselves. We wanted to get in at half-time, but we weren’t able to. There’s no point looking back and wondering.
“You saw what world-class players can do when they have confidence.
“We did well to press them like we did – second half it felt like they brought on 15 men!
“You have got to remember their players are on three times more a week than what we earn in a year! There’s a reason for that.
“I did our fans a massive disservice in midweek. I said they were Premier League standard – they are better than that. They are world-class.
“We had 9,000 here and they outsung 50,000 Arsenal supporters. We never celebrate losing, Arsenal or Brazil, but there is a reason why no NonLeague team has got to this stage for over 100 years – I wanted to mark it.
“We had a moment together at full-time. This will be the first and the last time I ever celebrate losing. I tried to give them all some reality.
“This cup run has fasttracked our performance on the pitch. We learned a lot about our weaknesses today, they were exposed. We’ll watch it back and find out where we went wrong. We did make mistakes, but now is certainly not the time to criticise.”
Told of Arsene Wenger’s National League title prediction, he smiled and said: “People criticise Wenger, but anyone who sees the way his players move, that comes from good coaching. You haven’t got to watch a coach actually coach to see how good he is. It was a football education for us. He’s forgotten more than I know.
“It wasn’t exactly great to watch! We tried to stay positive, but it was really hard to stay aggressive in our style. We were getting deeper and deeper and we couldn’t get out – it was like a boxer being on the ropes. Sooner or later you are going to get hit.
“Now the run is over it will be nice to see my kids again! The media attention is not why I started in football when I was three or four years old. I’ll be better for this as a manager, that’s a fact.
“We have to be inspired from playing here, we have got to learn from this journey. If we can’t take something from playing against world-class players then you should go home.”
“We shared a moment together at full-time. This will be the first and last time that I celebrate losing. I tried to give them some reality. We have to be inspired playing here” Danny Cowley Lincoln City manager