Lincoln boss Danny Cowley says Rovers ‘have always been good to us’ after the two clubs were paired together in the Carabao Cup draw.

The Imps trained at Rovers’ Brockhall training base in February 2017 in the lead up to knocking Burnley out of the FA Cup and reach the quarter-finals.

They were non-league at the time, but have since been promoted to League Two and have ambitions of going further than they did last season when they were beaten in the play-offs.

The two sides met in pre-season and Rovers have also allowed young defender Scott Wharton to spend the season on loan at Sincil Bank after a successful spell last term.

And after the draw, Cowley told the Lincolnshire Echo: “Blackburn have always been very good to us, with loaning Scott and allowing us to use their facilities.

“Those training facilities have been pretty good to us – we’ve got a really good record when we train at Blackburn.

“It (the relationship with Blackburn) has been built over time.

“We first contacted them prior to playing Burnley in the FA Cup and obviously there’s a rivalry between Blackburn and Burnley. We trained there quite a few times last season too.

“I think they were happy with the way we looked after Scott last season and they were happy for him to come back to us.”

Lincoln beat Port Vale 4-0 in round one but were again drawn away from home in the second round.

Rovers won the pre-season game 1-0 courtesy of a Joe Nuttall strike.

Of the draw, Cowley added: “We’ve been starved of home draws in cup competitions in recent times,” he said.

“But it’s a good game for us, a chance to test ourselves against a Championship team.

“We played Blackburn in pre-season and probably didn’t get to the levels we expect of ourselves. It’ll be good to have another opportunity against them.”