Danny Mandroiu was shown a straight red card for the second time this season, as Lincoln City lost to Bolton Wanderers at the LNER Stadium.
A bumper Boxing Day crowd, with over 10,000 spectators watched Bolton defender Eoin Toal head home a last-minute winner to break Imps hearts and take all three points back up north.
City made two changes to the side that lost at Derby on Thursday, with defender Adam Jackson missing out through illness and Jack Burroughs injured. Replacing them were TJ Eyoma and Sean Roughan, making his first league start since his recent injury.
As for the visitors, five changes were made to the side that won against Leyton Orient on Saturday.
Club captain Ricardo Santos returned from suspension, with Randell Williams, Aaron Morley, Paris Maghoma and striker Victor Adeboyejo all returning to the starting XI.
Jack Iredale, Will Forrester, Josh Sheehan, Kyle Dempsey and Jon Bodvarsson all dropped to the Wanderers bench.
First-Half:
The opening stages were a cagey affair, with the visitors seeing plenty of the ball. It was predominantly the Bolton defenders controlling possession, as City looked solid in their defensive shape.
Imps goalkeeper Lukas Jensen was forced into action after 11 minutes, parrying clear a low and fast cross from the right as Wanderers looked to turn the screw.
Victor Adeboyejo proved a handful for the Imps defence, and he had the fist effort on target. A left-footed curling effort from the edge of the box, proved no strong test for Jensen.
Defednder Alex Mitchell had the first opportunity for the hosts as his header was cleared away by defender Ricardo Santos on 20 minutes.
A crucial challenge from captain Paudie O’Connor stopped Adeboyejo from getting his effort away inside the City box.
Jovon Makama was shown the first yellow card of the game by referee Neil Hair, for a late tackle on the halfway line after half an hour.
The first clear cut opportunity of the game fell the way of visiting striker Dion Charles. The forward was found by a perfectly-weighted Thomason pass on the counter-attack. Charles continued to drive into the box but dragged his shot wide of the far post.
Charles and Bolton could have had two in the space of five minutes as Thomason and Charles were involved again. Thomason’s effort from the edge of the box was superbly blocked by TJ Eyoma before the ball deflected into the path of Charles.
The striker snatched at his effort from close range, scuffing the ball wide at the near post.
Second-Half:
The Imps enjoyed their best spell of the game in the opening 15 minutes of the second half, as they had more of the ball than they did in the first 45 minutes.
Sean Roughan came closest to scoring for City just before the hour mark as his controlled half volley from the left side of the box whistled inches past the far post, leaving goalkeeper Nathan Baxter stranded.
Wanderers top scorer Dion Charles came close to scoring on several occasions for the visitors. He had an effort tipped around the post by Jensen, before dragging another two shots wide of the post, as he looked for his 13th league goal of the season.
City’s afternoon became much harder when Mandroiu saw his second red card of the season on 72 minutes.
His late challenge on Aaron Morley left referee Neil Hair little choice but to send the City forward off, further adding to Skubala’s depleted strike force.
With less than a minute to go Eoin Toal jumped highest to connect with a Kyle Dempsey cross to break the hearts of the home crowd. He headed beyond Jensen to send the 1,870 visiting fans wild.
Lincoln City 0-1 Bolton Wanderers:
It’s the second successive season that Bolton’s Eoin Toal has scored at the Stacey West End, after last season’s 1-1 draw between the two sides.
It was a tough result to take for Skubala’s side against one of the high-flying sides of League One. The Imps now have not tasted victory in five games in all competitions and will look to change their fortunes on Friday night as they entertain Northampton Town.