Chris Cohen hailed the togetherness running through Lincoln City after the Imps secured another memorable away victory with a 1-0 win at Bristol City.
Freddie Draper struck the decisive goal as City followed up Saturday’s victory at Preston North End with another three points on the road, while another clean sheet underlined the defensive resilience of Cohen and Tom Shaw’s side.
Draper capitalised on the Imps’ collective pressing to score the winner, with Cohen believing the goal epitomised the work his players put in on the training ground.
He said: “It’s a connected football club. The success that we all had last year, there wasn’t one person who could do it. It takes a whole group of staff and a whole group of players to win any football match.
“That comes from what they do every single day. Every player works so hard every single day. We have to drag them off the training ground.
“As a coach I’ve never seen anything quite like it in terms of how together they are as a group of human beings.
“It gives you a chance every Saturday and every Tuesday. We could have drawn that game, we could have lost that game. George makes a really good save at 1-0 and maybe it’s a different game, but I know we’re always going to give ourselves a chance through pure personality, heart and passion.”
Draper was rewarded with a start after scoring the winner at Preston, and Cohen praised the striker for taking his opportunities while stressing the importance of every member of his squad.
He said: “Freddie is a massive part of it, because there are four or five players in the squad who aren’t seeing any grass at the moment and they’re going to be massive towards it as well.
“That’s really hard and probably difficult for them sometimes, watching teammates on the pitch and not getting a chance. But they’ll get their chance as well. They’ve just got to be patient.
“Individual performances are great, but it’s the collective that wins any football match, especially in the way that we want to.”
City’s latest shutout continued an impressive defensive start to life back in the Sky Bet Championship, with Cohen pointing towards the depth of his squad and work of the coaching staff.
He added: “Look at Ryley Towler coming back to Bristol. He was magnificent, but Andrei Coubiș was magnificent on Saturday, so we know we’ve got a squad that we can use.
“We trust all 27 of our players and they’re all going to be needed. Structurally, in terms of our defensive stuff, it doesn’t change that much.
“We’ve got brilliant analysts and people. Logan Hughes, who’s a coach with us, does a lot of work with the defenders. We’ve just got amazing staff and they help me and Tom so much.”
Despite City’s impressive opening to the campaign, Cohen was keen to retain perspective with only seven games of the Championship season played.
He said: “We haven’t cracked anything. We’re seven games into a 46-game season. All we can say to the lads is that we’ll give ourselves the best chance.
“I think Lincoln fans are so knowledgeable and understand the journey that we need to go on together.
“There are going to be these incredible highs like this and there are going to be loads of lows as well. We need to stick together through the bad times. At the minute it’s easy because we’re winning, so when we go through the darker periods, we need to go through them together.”
Cohen had earlier opened his post-match thoughts by sending his best wishes to Bristol City defender Rob Dickie, who suffered a serious-looking injury.
He said: “First and foremost, from the staff, players and everyone at the football club, we wish him a speedy recovery. That’s bigger than three points or football.
“In terms of the game, we’re just incredibly proud of the group of players. We love working with them, we love being part of it, and at the moment we just keep giving these fans these amazing memories, which is what it’s all about.
“These moments that we’re giving them, these away games at big stadiums - I’m just so happy to be a part of it.”
