Looking to guide Colchester United out of trouble – Danny Cowley (Image: Sky Sports)
A man who has had to work his way up the football pyramid, starting in the Essex Senior League with Concord Rangers before leading Huddersfield Town in the Sky Bet Championship, Danny Cowley is one of the most well-respected managers in the Football League.
Returning to Essex with Sky Bet League Two strugglers Colchester United in January, the 45-year-old has embarked on a mission to ensure the U’s don’t slip into non-league for the first time in over 30 years.
Despite sitting just above the relegation zone in 22nd place, Colchester have Forest Green Rovers and Sutton United breathing down their neck with both sides hitting form at the right time of the season.
Nonetheless, Cowley felt it was an intruiging opportunity to manage Colchester, highlighting the excellent work that goes on behind the scenes that often goes unnoticed.
“The club were in a difficult moment when we took over – I think they had lost 11 out of 12 games when we arrived,” he explained.
“It is a club and community I know well as Nicky (Cowley – Assistant Manager and brother) and I were brought up in Essex and we lived in the area until we were about 35.
“When we were first approached about the job, we spoke to the owner Robbie Cowling and we were just so impressed with him for his vision and passion for not only the football club, but also the local community.
“He wants nothing but success for the club and I think he has had huge success in his career with the companies he owns.
“He spoke about the pain and frustration he felt about how he had not been able to bring the success he had wanted to Colchester and we were inspired by that.
“We knew Dmitri (Halajko) our Sporting Director well because we did our UEFA Pro Licence with him so we knew there were good people at the club.
“At Colchester, there are so many good people and so many good things happening at the club but sometimes football clubs are measured only by first-team success.
“In recent years, the club hasn’t had the success at first-team level but we knew there were a lot of good things happening at the club already.
“We have a brilliant academy, some brilliant coaches and some fantastic young players and we see so much potential.
“We obviously have to navigate through the difficult predicament we are in at the moment but we believe we can do that.
“We genuinely believe we can bring brighter tomorrows to Colchester.”
Since Cowley took charge of Colchester, he immediately oversaw an upturn in results following a run of nine consecutive defeats in all competitions under the leadership of Matthew Etherington.
In his 11 games in charge so far, he has overseen eight draws with the sole victory coming in a 1-0 away triumph at Morecambe. In that run, they have also faced the aforementioned Sutton and Forest Green and shared the spoils in both games with the latter seeing them recover from a three-goal deficit to secure a 3-3 draw.
Cowley is pleased with his side’s performances but understands the importance of turning those draws into wins.
“We have now been in for 11 matches and we have taken points in nine of those games,” he said.
“When you consider how the club had lost 11 out of 12 before we joined, the underlying statistics are certainly showing that the performances are going in the right direction.
“We try to be really process-orientated so we don’t get too caught up with the outcome but if you look at us defensively, all of our defensive measures are improving.
“We haven’t kept enough clean sheets but if the team have only kept three clean sheets up to this point, it is something we are continually looking to work hard on.
“When we arrived, we had the challenges of Samson Tovide, who is a very important player, being injured and we also lost Joe Taylor (who joined Lincoln City on loan from Luton Town after his loan deal expired) a day after we arrived which we knew about anyway.
“Between them, they had a high percentage of the goals that we had scored so to have neither of them available was a challenge.
“We are continuing to work hard on the training ground but to also turn the draws into wins.
“If you look at the Accrington Stanley game, we drew 1-1 and they didn’t even have a shot on target but we unfortunately scored an own goal when we had total control of the game.
“In the Forest Green game, we were 3-2 up and conceded at the end of the game and again, we should have won.
“There were games we should have won in this period but we are pleased that we are now competitive game in, game out but our ambition now is to try and turn some of those draws into wins.”
With Colchester only having nine games to preserve their EFL status, they have several tough matches to navigate in the coming weeks starting with the visit of Newport County on Good Friday before welcoming title-chasing Stockport County and Wrexham to the JobServe Community Stadium.
Cowley feels his side may thrive when there is less expectation of them winning, as shown by the 1-1 draw to table-topping Mansfield Town last time out.
“The game against Mansfield showed that we can go toe to toe with the best teams in the division,” he believes.
“For me, they are a brilliant team and Newport, Stockport and Wrexham all pose different challenges and it is a great league, you play against teams with all different styles.
“Against Mansfield, we played against a team that had scored 31 goals in the last ten games and they are a team that have actually scored double the number of goals in comparison to the next highest-scoring side in League Two.
“We were really pleased with the group’s determination and resilience in that game and I thought it was the most street-wise we had been heading into a game.
“You have to remember that, with Samson (Tovide) coming back into the group, I think we have the youngest squad in the Football League.
“We have got a great group of players who are so humble and hard-working and so keen to improve.”
The JobServe Community Stadium has had pitch issues in recent weeks which culminated in them having to postpone a handful of games due to drainage problems. Now fixed, this means that the U’s have six of their last nine games at home which also sees Grimsby Town, another side being dragged into a relegation battle, heading to Essex in April.
Cowley is full of praise for the supporters who have stuck with the club through thick and thin and emphasises the importance of getting behind his side in the closing stages of the campaign.
“The supporters have just been incredible from the moment we arrived,” he said.
“The loyalty they have shown the club is great and it hasn’t been easy to be a Colchester supporter in recent years and it has been tough for everybody.
“I have found a club that has the most loyal supporters and a group of fans that just want the very best for the club.
“I think they understand how important their role can be because as you alluded to, six of our last nine games are at home which is a fantastic opportunity to make our home ground a really difficult place for opponents to visit.
“We want to make our stadium a place where no opponent gets an easy ride and our supporters have a huge part to play because of how we like to play, we want to play high-intensity football, play on the front foot and be aggressive.
“The supporters, for them to be with us to support us and drive the player’s energy is going to be so important to the outcome of our season.
Cowley alongside his brother Nicky, are eager to deliver a brighter future for their ‘brilliant supporters.’ While they need to first secure their League Two survival, the U’s have a bright future in prospect with an excelling academy and a good infastructure at the club.
The ex-Portsmouth boss explains how he is going to try and bring back the glory days for Colchester.
“For Nicky and I, we just want to bring brighter tomorrows and that is our ambition,” he said.
“We know how much this club means to the people and how it much it means to the owner, staff, players and we certainly know how much it means to our brilliant supporters.
“We want to try and produce a football team where everybody who loves the club is connected and is proud of the team.
“We want to build a team that fits the identity of our supporters and they are honest people and if we can create a team that respects them in a really positive way, we will be really pleased.”
