Ex-Imps coach temporarily joins Cats
SUNDERLAND have added former Lincoln City coach Jamie McCombe to their backroom staff ahead of the play-off semi-final against the Imps.
Black Cats boss Lee Johnson will be without his long-time lieutenant Jamie McAllister for the next five games – a spell that will include both legs of the semi-final, a potential final, and stretch into next season – as the Scot continues to serve a six-match ban following a tunnel altercation at half-time in Sunderland’s Good Friday win against Oxford United at the Stadium of Light.
And that has prompted Johnson to bring in McCombe on a shortterm basis.
McCombe is well-known to Johnson, with the pair having been team-mates at Bristol City, and he also arrives with the inside track on Lincoln having spent four years with the club as a coach under the Cowley brothers before leaving in January last year. He also had a spell as caretaker-manager there in 2019 when the Cowleys left to take over at Huddersfield Town.
“We’ve brought in Jamie McCombe but he will just be a shortterm addition at the moment,” said Johnson.
“I would probably say that Jamie [McAllister] is a restart specialist, and the way we work it on the sidelines is that I oversee everything but Jamie does take on a big responsibility because I think that a voice change is important as well.
“A lot of the work that Jamie does is on the set-plays and the adjustments, whether that is through substitutions or threats that may appear during the game.
That knowledge and different voice is really important, so I wanted to keep it as similar as possible and I knew Jamie’s [McCombe’s] strengths at Lincoln under the Cowleys, that was a big part of his role there.
“It’s always good to get someone with a different set of eyes on it, and a different opinion on it.
“He’s been involved in play-offs before, which also helps.
“He’s a sound human being, he’s very steady and he knows us because he has had time to watch us with the video clips we have sent him.
“He is someone that has the character to slot in.
“I also need to put in a disclaimer here and say that he is 6ft 7in, so when he stands next to me on the sidelines and I look about 3ft 2in, I want you to remind people that he is tall!”