A season full of development and resilience for the young Imps saw them collect 34 points during the 2025/26 campaign, securing a strong fifth-place finish in the Youth Alliance North East Division.
Sam Tillen was keen to highlight the challenges faced by his squad in the earlier parts of the season through a mixture of injuries and work experience loans.
He said: “I think there were two parts to the season really, before Christmas it was quite tough because unfortunately we had a significant number of players that weren’t available on a regular basis.
“We lost Lewy Oliver and Leo Vout through injury as well as Josh Kennealey who are all big players from the first year group and that was a significant blow for us.”
However, the head coach was quick to commend his players on their unity and togetherness to rally during the second half of the season and string a significant number of wins together.
Tillen said: “I think we recruited really well, some of the lads we’ve brought in for next year have been a real push especially the final 12 weeks of the season.
“We’ve managed to get a cohesive group together both in and out of possession and that’s lead to some real positive results as well as some brilliant individual performances.”
A number of players have impressed during the 2025/26 campaign but Donald Inyama has been a stalwart of the City midfield and leads by example both on and off the pitch and Tillen highlighted his work ethic and hunger for learning.
He said: “Donald is a very quiet individual but he typifies the attitude and commitment you need on a day-to-day basis and he’s always ready to give his best and wants to learn and develop his game.
“I think on the pitch he’s just a very tough boy and he’s very good at what he does, he wins possession very well and he’s really been the glue that’s held the team together at times.”
With the conclusion of the season, focus has already shifted onto the next campaign and optimism is high for this group of players to build on the successful end of the season.
Tillen said: “Ultimately, we now want the lads to have a break but they need to come back in the best possible physical condition they can be.
“It’s really important they maximise every training session and every opportunity they get and the opportunities that may come in pre-season and the potential to facilitate training with the first team so they need to be ready.”