Danny Cowley has been speaking exclusively to Football League World's Gary Hutchinson about which Championship sides impressed him most in pre-season.

Cowley's Lincoln faced Norwich City, Sheffield Wednesday, Blackburn Rovers and Hull City, as well as Derby County U23s in a testing pre-season for the League Two side.

The Imps lost all four of the matches against the senior sides as Cowley gave his players the ultimate test and he's been sharing which of those sides were the ones who stood out most for him, as well as highlighting the benefits for his Imps side.

"We played five Championship teams and it was a great pre-season in terms of building our organisation without the ball. It also helped build our resilience and grit that you need to have as the season unfolds."

"We thought Hull City were very good when we played them. On the day, Blackburn Rovers were very good too. They were the two that were the most impressive on the day we played them."

The Imps manager did however offer a word of caution when assessing the four teams

"To be fair to the other two sides, we played them early in the pre-season and they were playing two separate teams, switching at half time. Sometimes you have to be careful with these judgements as you play them at different times trying to get different outcomes."

Cowley went on to explain the differences between the two sets of games.

"Those two games were a squad process which allowed them to get lots of minutes into different players. Blackburn and Hull had stronger teams that they played for a large duration of the game and were perhaps more coherent as a result."

His Lincoln City side drew 1-1 this weekend with Grimsby Town, extended their unbeaten start to the season to four matches, league and cup. They're currently joint top of the early League Two table, along with MK Dons and Exeter City.