For Lincoln City it has been a troublesome week.

It has seen them lose manager Danny Cowley to Huddersfield Town as well as face rejection from two of their top candidates to replace him: Gareth Ainsworth and Michael Flynn.

But the show must go on and under Jamie McCombe it is doing just that and although the club's form has dipped, there is still a lot to be optimistic about.

One of which is defensive midfielder Callum Connolly.

The 21-year-old signed on loan from Everton during the summer and is slowly beginning to put his mark on the Imps side, with his versatility proving incredibly useful as well.

Since graduating through the Toffees' academy, he has enjoyed loan stints with Barnsley, Wigan, Ipswich and Bolton but is yet to do enough to warrant more than one first-team appearance for his parent club.

Here, though, we take a closer look at his current season...

At 21, Connolly will know that his chances to impress Marco Silva and those at Goodison park will be running out with this season looking like the one where he will have to make that step up.

Under Danny Cowley, it looked like he had the ideal mentor but with him now gone, that challenge to prove himself has just become a whole lot bigger.

But prove himself is what he is slowly starting to do, gradually asserting himself on the first-team.

In his four League One appearances, his maturity on the ball has been what has made him stand out.

A pass accuracy of 81% shows a sensibility that is often lacking from players of his age and a trait that is bound to stand him good stead for the rest of his career, whilst one assist and two key passes show that he is capable of the creative as well.

He has been a unit in front of the Lincoln defence as well, having only been dribbled past once in four appearances and winning eight tackles as well. 2.4 clearances per game shows that he possesses the 'no-nonsense' side to his game that can be invaluable at League One level.

As far as his Everton career goes, he is still some way from proving worthy of a first-team place.

But, after a series of loans in the past, it should be encouraging to their fans that the youngster is still showing the same desire to improve as he always has.