The Cowley Bros.

Computer whizzes are loving the real thing

- Chris Dunlavy

FOR most of us, Championship Manager was a mighty fine way to avoid homework or while away rainy summer holidays.

Joyful hours could be wasted leading Scunthorpe into the Champions League or turning Neil Lennon into a Ballon D’Or contender.

For Danny and Nicky Cowley, however, it was all rather more serious. In the mid-90s, operating under the name Dannic Cowley, the duo played the original Amiga 500 version until the floppy disc wore out. Then there were the props.

“I started with a briefcase,” said Nicky, the younger by three years. “Then I got a long, ankle-length Ron Atkinson Umbro coat. Then I decided to build a dug-out using the Z-bed. I was just trying to make it more realistic.”

It didn’t stop there either. On car trips to see relatives, the pair would sit in the back seat with a notepad, compiling a list of transfer targets.

Post-match, they would retire to the back room of the family home in Essex to reenact scenarios from their team’s matches. “Nicky would be the forward holding it up and backing in,” said Danny, now 36. “I’d be the defender trying to win the ball.”

Then, as now, football was all that mattered. At ten, Nicky could name all 92 League grounds. At school, teachers used league tables to engage Danny in maths. “That was actually my suggestion,” said dad Steve. “I knew it was all he was interested in.”

Today, at the helm of Lincoln City after two decades in the business, that dedication and obsessive attention to detail burns just as bright.

Pumped