In the midst of a busy deadline day, Lincoln City were held to a goalless draw at home to ten man Blackburn Rovers as they came to rue missed chances.
The Imps went into the match on a two-game winning streak, having picked up their first points in the EFL Championship after beating Bolton Wanderers 1-0 on Saturday courtesy of a Ben House strike just past the hour mark.
Blackburn on the other hand, went into the mid-week fixture on poor form, having just lost by the same 2-1 scoreline to both Sheffield United in the Carabao Cup and then Queens Park Rangers in the league.
A close encounter
Early doors, the Imps got their supporters rocking in the ProAmpac Stadium with the home side having the better opportunities going forward.
Rob Street had the first shot of the match early doors, as he flashed a header wide of the post in front of the Rilmac Stand, setting the tone for the start of the game as City continued to be the side on the front foot.
The momentum created by the hosts caused frustrations among the Rovers defence as Tom Atcheson committed a foul on Reeco Hackett in a critical area of the pitch and received a yellow card just 13 minutes into the game.
However, the tide began to quickly turn in the game as the Imps no longer possessed the same control they had early doors as the visitors started to hold onto the ball more often and overall being much less erratic in possession.
With ten minutes left of the half, Conor McGrandles fouled Oladapo Afolayan in the visitors final third, just as the winger looked in a dangerous position with the ball.
Two-time EFL Championship winner Todd Cantwell struck the resulting free kick well with the ball floating near the top left corner. But George Wickens managed to get a glove to the ball sending it wayward – with that acting as the last chance of the half.
City fail to capitalise
It was the away side who came out showing attacking intent after the interval, with both Cantwell and Ryan Alebiosu both having chances within the first few minutes of the restart. Cantwell’s was offside and Alebiosu’s shot was palmed out by Wickens.
Dom Jeffries came closest to opening the scoring just under ten minutes into the half as he was denied a goal amidst a goal-mouth scramble, with plenty of bodies in front of the target leading the Welshmans shot to go amiss.
The moment of the match happened in the 69th minute as Atcheson was eventually sent off by referee Will Finnie, after a dangerous challenge out wide against Street, giving the referee zero choice but to give him his marching orders.
City’s new club-record signing Mikkel Ladefoged was subbed onto the field to replace Street in the 77th minute of the match, with the Dane making his highly anticipated debut for the Imps.
Frustrations began to mount for the visiting team and those boiled over when Tanto Olaofe was brought down right outside the penalty area with little more than five minutes left of the game. Although, unfortunately for the hosts, Adam Reach’s free-kick caused no problems for Blackburn.
And the visitors had to turn their defensive efforts up a notch with substitutes Andrei Coubiș, Ivan Varfolomeev and Ladefoged’s brilliant link-up play in the dying embers of the match leading to a corner – however, nothing would come from the set piece in the end.
The referee blew his whistle with the match ending as a 0-0 draw with both teams taking a point this time out, next up for Lincoln is another Championship game against Southampton on Saturday back at the ProAmpac Stadium.