Michael Skubala’s Lincoln City were narrowly beaten 2-1 by Club World Cup champions Chelsea in the third round of the Carabao Cup.
It was a performance to be proud of for the Sky Bet League One side as they were the better team in the first half, going in at the break a 1-0 up courtesy of Rob Street.
Five minutes of madness at the start of the second half saw The Blues flip the game on its head. Tyrique George scored a fabulous goal from the edge of the box in the 48th minute before Facundo Buonanotte made it 2-1 just two minutes later to stun the home team.
Before the game, Head-Coach Michael Skubala said that his side “have to start well” and they certainly did, with Lewis Montsma hitting the post just two minutes in and the Imps leading at half-time.
When asked how crucial it was that his side got the strong start, he said: “We wanted to set the tone for the game.
“We said before that we can’t let this be Chelsea having the ball and bopping us all over the place, so we had to set the tone for it and I think we did that really well.
“It carried on and in the end, we got the goal from our press. It was electric and in the first half I thought we were so good.”
It was 23-year-old striker Rob Street’s second goal of the season since returning from his loan spell at Doncaster Rovers this summer.
On how important scoring against such a good opposition will be for his confidence, Skubala said: “Yeah he was magnificent up there, him and Freddie (Draper) were superb.
“I think he did his job perfectly without the ball and he gets his goal as well, so he should be really proud of his performance overall and the cleverness of how he operated, but he’s got to be pleased with his goal.”
The fans were predictably ever present in the game, with the LNER stadium having 10,214 people in attendance for the big occasion.
They were loud and provided an outstanding atmosphere through the whole match, on the importance of the fans, Skubala said: “They are everything to us!
“We truly believe they are a big part of what we do here. They are everything about how we go about it, we’ll have good days and bad days but they’re behind us and they can see what we are trying to build.”