Lincoln Hyde was appointed as secretary-manager of Stockport County in 1926. At the time the club was in the Third Division North. Despite the fact that he was forced to sell his best players for financial reasons, Hyde had a good record at Stockport and the club finished third in 1927-28 and second in 1928-29 and 1929-30.
In 1931 Hyde was appointed manager of Preston North End. He replaced Alex Gibson who had been blamed for the loss of Alex James. The main complaint against Gibson was his failure to get Preston promoted to the First Division of the Football League.
