Lincoln City and Accrington Stanley played out a 1-1 draw at Sincil Bank, after Jack Diamond’s penalty was cancelled out by a late equaliser from the visitors.
City returned to the LNER stadium off the back of a disappointing result against Port Vale, with the Imps looking to bounce back after a consistent run of results in October. The visitors were winless in their last six games before the tie, setting the stage for what was set to be an exciting encounter under the lights on Tuesday.
Manager Mark Kennedy made four changes to the side he fielded against Port Vale, with Joe Walsh, Charles Vernam, Lasse Sørensen, Jamie Robson coming into the team. Accrington though were largely unchanged with Liam Coyle and Douglas Tharme being the exceptions.
The game did not get off to a good start, with both teams being far too cautious with their back threes and nobody on the pitch making runs in behind. It took 15 minutes for the game to get into a rhythm and the home side were clearly on top, thanks to Matty Virtue stopping any whisper of an attack from the opposition.
Favouring the left side of the pitch, the first shot on target came courtesy of Charles Vernam, pouncing on the ball in the middle of the park, only to be denied by a fantastic save by the opposition keeper.
The visitors finally moved up the pitch in the 30th minute and got their first corner of the game but Ryan Astley could only head it straight at Rushworth. Accrington followed that up with their best attack of the first half as Pritchard delivered a slicing ball in behind the Imps defence to release Tommy Leigh, but he couldn’t square the ball.
Rushworth went down with a muscle issue before the following corner was taken, and unfortunately couldn’t continue and was replaced by Jordan Wright.
The last bit of action in the first half wasn’t football related unfortunately, as both sides got into a bit of a scuffle, resulting in Ben House and Mitch Clark for the opposition to be the first names in the book for the night.
Accrington started the second half the brighter of the two sides and won an early corner which Tommy Leigh put harmlessly wide of Jordan Wright’s goal.
Jack Diamond was then sent through brilliantly by Regan Poole with a reverse ball, and only an illegal tackle inside the box could stop him as he earned his side a penalty. Diamond calmly converted the resultant spot kick, sending the keeper the wrong way and slotting it to the right.
Ethan Hamilton’s shot from distance nearly caught Wright off guard as he palmed it behind for a corner which the visitors couldn’t convert. House then put Diamond through on goal as he nearly beat 5 players, only to be denied by a brilliant reactionary save from the Stanley keeper.
The visitors got a late corner in the 85th minute, which The Imps couldn’t clear, the ball eventually fell to Clark’s feet who put in a peach of a cross for Harvey Rodgers to finish and bring the score level.
The game fell into a stop-start rhythm post equaliser, with Accrington putting everyone behind the ball to take a point home. Lincoln City couldn’t find the winner in the 5 added minutes and the points were shared.
Lincoln City will be back in action on the 5th of November, as they start their FA Cup run against Chippenham Town.