City are poised to take on Fleetwood Town this weekend – the first game since Mark Kennedy was dismissed from his role as head coach earlier this week.
The club announced on Wednesday evening that both Kennedy and Danny Butterfield would leave their positions with immediate effect. Consequently, Tom Shaw will assume the role of interim head coach for his first Football League game in management this weekend.
Earlier this season, Fleetwood Town parted ways with Scott Brown, with former Sunderland manager, Lee Johnson, taking over. As City approach the weekend, Johnson has publicly shared his thoughts on the news from Wednesday.
Johnson expressed his support for his fellow head coach, stating that he believed Mark was doing a commendable job despite facing some challenging circumstances: “I don’t like manager changes as I know there are many variables that can happen in football, and I must say Mark seemed to be doing a decent job at Lincoln. I have watched a few of their games and they seem to have had some misfortunes with injuries”
The former Hibernian manager acknowledged that the upcoming weekend’s game will be tough, given the uncertainty surrounding how City will line up under interim manager Shaw.
“For us, it’s a bit like an unknown realm if you like to how the opposition will line-up due to their managerial change. Therefore, we need to turn the dial and make sure the focus is more on us than Lincoln.”
It’s fair to say that Kennedy has the support of Johnson. Although the former Sunderland manager may be correct when talking about what happened on the pitch, his comments may have been misjudged considering what we’ve learnt over the past few days from Liam Scully’s interview with BBC Radio Lincolnshire.