Michael Appleton's far less of a showman - managers assessed as Portsmouth boss gets set for Lincoln City return

There will be a lot of love and affection as the two men will be on the touchline to face their former sides.

Lincoln favourite Cowley will return to Sincil Bank for the first time since he left for Huddersfield in 2019.

As for Appleton this will be the fifth time he will face the club he left in 2012, after spending a tumultuous year at the helm as the club was plunged into administration.

In the latest episode of The Insider on our YouTube channel, we spoke to Lincoln fan, Gary Hutchinson, from the Stacey West Blog ahead of the game on Tuesday night.

Here’s what he had to say:

‘The rebound had started (at Lincoln) but what Danny and Nicky did when they came in was give the club the rest of a lift.

‘We were on a slight upturn and they got on, they rode that and they drove that and they pushed us forward.

‘It would be wrong to deny they were anything other than absolutely pivotal to everything positive that happened right the way through to the day they left.

‘Michael’s very good on the training field, he’s got great contacts in the game but he doesn’t need to lean on them needlessly.

‘He’s been very good, they’ve both been very good for the football club in very different ways.

‘Michael’s far less of a showman, Danny’s very talkative, very wordy and knows how to press buttons with people but Michael is just this is how I’m doing it and there’s no messing around - he’s very straight talking.

‘I think how they approach their recruitment is very methodical, they’re stats driven and try to play a similar brand of football, but in terms of how they like to attack playing with a lead striker with a 10 in behind with two wide players, that’s very similar.

‘They like to get the full-backs overlapping and move up the thirds but I like Michael’s approach, it’s different and it's not for everybody.

‘With Danny win, lose or draw he gives the fans a fist pump and it sort of lifts everybody, but with Michael it’s much more sedate he lets the players do the talking, he’ll acknowledge the crowd but he’s far less of an overstated figure.

‘Whilst him and Danny are very different people there’s a lot of similarities between them and they’ve been great for the club.’