Lincoln City head coach Michael Skubala praised his side’s improved performance after their 4-1 win over Crawley Town.
Goals from Jovon Makama, James Collins, Dom Jefferies and Joe Gardner sealed the deal for the Imps.
The Imps boss said: “It was a great game, a good three points. I was much happier with the performance, when we perform like the last 30 minutes at Barnsley and perform like we did tonight, I think we are a match for anyone.
“I think there’s a stat which says we’ve had 42 shots against them, and there were some really great performances again tonight.”
It was not all easy going for City, though, having originally gone 1-0 down after five minutes thanks to Kamari Doyle.
An inspired Imps comeback:
On his side’s comeback, Skubala said: “It wasn’t so much about the quickness, it was about the calmness of the players. At times, when you go one down you don’t want to go two down, you want to keep calm, and the lads did that.
“They started to push the game, and we controlled the intensity, we were really compact, and when we got going, we looked really lively, which was to do with how we set up with our structure, and we could go forward and look threatening.
“When the lads got the second, I think that was the game about done.”
Skubala felt a lot of it came down to the discipline his side had, and the professionalism to get a result after a poor start.
He said: “You have to make sure you don’t come out giving things away, we gave the first goal away but didn’t want that to happen again.
“We had good shape and good structure, and Hamo (Ben Hamer) nearly scored late on as well. We had a few chances and that was magnificent.”
The fast and expressive Lincoln attack was something Skubala wanted to note when speaking post-match, especially the performance of January signing James Collins.
“The front four were magnificent in the way they started, and I think Collins used his experience in holding it up or getting past people, or bringing people into play, and I think to a man that was good,” he said. “The young strikers need his experience, but he needs the youthfulness, and I thought together the mix was really good.”
Mostly good news on the injury front:
Alongside the good performance came good signs on the injury front, as Hamer made his return to the starting 11 following a lengthy spell on the medical table.
His return was a joy for his gaffer to see, saying: “His aerial dominance is great and to see the young man back on and playing well after his injury is great. Everyone’s smiling, he’s happy and I thought he played really well.”
Not only Hamer returned to the Imps, with Sheffield Wednesday loanee Bailey Cadamarteri making an appearance for the final 10 minutes.
On his return, Skubala said: “He needs minutes, we need to build them up slowly but when he came on, he looked threatening and intense and could keep going.”
It was not all good news for Lincoln though, with defender Adam Jackson seeming to get a knock. “It will have good to have Paudie [O’Connor] back on Saturday, Jacko’s had to play with a little bit of a knock so we’ll have to see how we go this week,” the Imps head coach noted.
A tough test next-up:
Next up for the Imps is a trip to table-toppers Birmingham City, who fell to defeat at Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday night.
The Imps head coach had a lot of praise for the Blues, saying: “Everyone knows they’re a good side; they’ll probably break the 100-point record, but they can be beaten. When we went there, we had good intensity and structure and in the second half we got after them. We’ll have to do the same, but it’ll be tough.
“Today was a really important three points for us, because it’s nudging us up and we need to keep nudging. Birmingham are one of those where we can see how it goes and hopefully get some points.”