Lincoln City have appointed former Grimsby Town assistant Shaun Pearson to their coaching staff and welcomed back analyst Logan Hughes, strengthening the support for joint head coaches Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw. The moves complete the club's summer recruitment process for the backroom team, coming off a 1-0 away win at Bristol City that lifted the Imps to eighth in the Championship with 11 points from seven games.
Cohen confirmed the 37-year-old Pearson's arrival this week, joking about a specific physical requirement for new staff. "Exactly that. That was exactly our message, me and Tom, to the team yesterday, is that we’ve also got our prerequisite where we have to sign tall players," he said. The joint head coach was more serious about the search process, revealing Pearson was a top target. "We met a lot of candidates for the role in the summer, and the two that we were desperate for, or really wanted, were Paul McShane and Shaun Pearson."
Pearson, who stands over six foot three, retired from playing in 2023 and immediately moved into coaching at Blundell Park. He worked in Grimsby's academy and on scouting before taking a more prominent first-team role, eventually serving as joint caretaker manager and later assistant head coach. His playing career included spells with Spalding United, Stamford, and Boston United before he first joined Grimsby in 2011. He was part of the Mariners squad that won promotion back to the Football League in 2016, spent four years at Wrexham, and returned to help secure another National League promotion in 2022.
Cohen praised Pearson's "wonderful CV" and the work he did at Grimsby, a club Lincoln faced in pre-season. The Imps had been linked with Pearson since June, with negotiations reported at that time. His appointment follows that of Paul McShane earlier in the summer, giving Cohen and Shaw the two coaches they specifically wanted.
Hughes returns from World Cup duty
The backroom reshuffle also sees the return of Logan Hughes to the LNER Stadium. Hughes worked as Lincoln's first-team performance analyst during the 2023/24 campaign, which ended with a charge to the play-offs. He left after that season to take up a role with the New Zealand national team, serving as the performance analyst lead for the All Whites at the recent World Cup. He returned to the club last month in a slightly different capacity as First Team Coach Analyst and has been present at matches for the last eight weeks.
His analytical expertise, honed on the international stage, adds another layer to a staff now looking fully settled. The immediate focus shifts to a tough home fixture against second-placed Swansea City on Saturday, a match that will test Lincoln's two-game winning streak.
With the staff now complete, the emphasis returns to the pitch. Lincoln's recent form reads two wins, two draws, and one loss from their last five outings, a sequence that includes a 4-0 defeat at Bournemouth but also clean-sheet victories over Preston and Bristol City. Freddie Draper scored the winner in both of those 1-0 triumphs. The club sits just three points behind league leaders West Ham, with a goal difference of zero after scoring and conceding six each. The next challenge is clear: maintaining momentum against a high-flying Swansea side at the LNER Stadium.
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