Lincoln City ended their pre-season campaign with a heavy 3-0 defeat to Championship side Rotherham United at the LNER Stadium.
There were early warning signs for City, with Rotherham’s Jordan Hugill heading the ball onto the post in the opening minute. The energetic start to the game continued, as Ben House tested visiting goalkeeper Viktor Johansson with a low driven effort from inside the box.
However, just before the break Rotherham took the lead. Oliver Rathbone curled in a beautiful right-footed effort from outside of the box, past the helpless Lukas Jensen.
It was an Imps return for Tyler Walker at half-time, replacing fellow new signing Reeco Hackett, and Walker was immediately involved. His sharp turn and pass set up Lasse Sorensen, who saw a powerful driven strike flash wide of the near post.
The Danish player would be made to rue that miss as moments later a free-kick from the edge of the box was superbly placed into the top left-corner by Cafu Dias, to double the Millers’ lead.
From that point onwards, Mark Kennedy’s side looked second best. It looked as if things would get worse for the Imps as on 53 minutes Jaden Brown was penalised for a handball in the box, giving Rotherham the chance to add a third.
Jordan Hugill stepped up to take the spot-kick, but Imps new man Jensen stood tall to parry the ball away to keep the City deficit to only two. However, it was only a matter of time before Rotherham would score again, which they did on the hour mark with Hugill eventually finding the back of the net, tapping in a cross from the right wing.
City seemed to lack a real attacking threat in the second half with only Sorensen and a late Dylan Duffy effort forcing the Millers’ back line to worry.
Mark Kennedy’s side begin their league campaign with an away trip to promotion hopefuls Bolton Wanderers on Saturday afternoon (3pm). A trip to Notts County in the EFL Trophy is sandwiched in between that and the first home game of the season, against Wycombe Wanderers.