Lincoln City welcomed Port Vale to the LNER Stadium in Sky Bet League One action, narrowly edging them 3-2 in a feisty affair that saw three red cards.
Imps Head Coach, Mark Kennedy, made no changes to the side that won a hard-fought match against league leaders Plymouth Argyle on Easter Monday, as his side looked to win 3 consecutive matches for the first time this season.
The visitors came into this game without a win in over a month, coming in a 1-0 win against MK Dons on March 4th.
Kick-off:
Lincoln City got off to a brilliant start, scoring after 11 minutes. A perfectly drilled through ball by Danny Mandroiu was met by Lasse Sorensen, who beat his defender before slotting the ball into the bottom left corner.
Lincoln took no chances as they attempted to build on their early lead. Sorensen laid the ball off nicely to Matty Virtue, who’s cut-back across goal couldn’t meet the cheeky flick of Ben House, before Vale’s defence managed to get the ball away from any further danger.
20 minutes later, Lincoln found themselves in danger. Carl Rushworth made an error in defence and was forced into taking Matty Taylor down, which resulted in the Imps goalkeeper being sent off, leaving substitute goalkeeper Jordan Wright with the responsibility of trying to keep Lincoln ahead.
This was to no success, however, as Taylor fired the ball down the middle of the goal, levelling the game.
Just three minutes later, Port Vale took the lead. The ball was cleared from a Lincoln set piece, only for them to build and counter. A perfect ball had just too much on it for TJ Eyoma to clear, and Dan Butterworth saw himself through on goal against Wright. A thunderous strike into the bottom left corner made the score 1:2.
In an aftermath of the goal, Tom Conlon was sent off for an altercation with Ben House, which only saw the Lincoln striker get a booking.
Just seven minutes later, Lincoln got themselves an equaliser. The ball was flicked into Mandroiu, who played a floated ball over the defence and to Ben House. House chested it down before striking the ball past a helpless Aiden Stone in goal for Port Vale.
Half Time: Lincoln City 2:2 Port Vale
Second Half:
The two sides continued with the same level of intensity in the second half as was seen in the first half. With no clear chances for both sides, both teams tried to break in end-to-end action, with challenges flying in constantly.
Sammy Robinson was the second Port Vale player and the third player of the match to see red. Two challenges, the first coming from a foul on Ben House just two minutes after coming on at half time, and the second coming from a poor challenge on Imps player Dylan Duffy.
Out of desperation, Port Vale had seen themselves go from 11vs10 to 9vs10 over the course of the match.
In the 87th minute, Lincoln City managed to find a winner. Youngster Dylan Duffy swung in a dangerous cross, beating the Port Vale defender and landing on the head of Adam Jackson, whose header nestled into the back of the net.
Full Time: Lincoln City 3:2 Port Vale
With this win, Lincoln City find themselves in 12th place, 15 points from a play-off spot and 15 points from the relegation zone. Lincoln may have found themselves in good form at the right time, facing promotion-hopefuls Barnsley on Tuesday night.