Lincoln City 3, Barnsley 1
Lincoln City made it four league home wins in a row with victory over Barnsley at the LNER Stadium on last. night.
The moved level on points with second placed Bradford City whose game was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch
The Imps were ahead at the break thanks to Reeco Hackett's powerful strike but the visitors came back into it and equalised through Davis Keillor-Dunn. Michael Skubala’s side showed great character to instantly hit back, with Tom Bayliss putting them back ahead almost immediately, before Hackett wrapped up the points with his second of the game moments later.
Skubala made two changes from the side that defeated Port Vale in City’s most recent Sky Bet League One outing, with Bayliss and Dom Jefferies coming into the team. James Collins and Ben House were missing from the matchday squad after it was revealed the pair are set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines with injuries.
City head coach Michael Skubala praised the quality on show from his side: “ “I’m really happy with the goals, the performance and most importantly, the three points. It is the perfect start to the run of games we’ve got coming up over the festive period, so I’m very pleased.
“I thought in the first half we were so good, we were excellent with our press, our intensity and our desire to get the ball. They couldn’t live with us at times.
“We showed excellent character after conceding the equaliser, I’m just pleased with everyone’s contribution. Of course, the desire and the character was impressive, but I thought we had some real quality in there as well.”
The Imps had been dealt a blow ahead of kick off after it was revealed that James Collins and Ben House were set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines with injuries.
Collins will miss the rest of the season after rupturing an anterior cruciate ligament in last Tuesday's Vertu Trophy match against Huddersfield Town, with House ruled out for eight weeks after tearing a lateral collateral ligament against Port Vale.
The boss reiterated that while it is a blow to lose both players he believes in the attacking players he has at his disposal and this was strengthened by the goals City scored against the Tykes.
Skubala added: “We knew they would be a team who would want to dominate the ball and we set up in a way that allowed us to counter-press them and smother the game a little bit.
“We won the ball high and showed real quality in the goals that we scored. Reeco has got two which is excellent and Tom Bayliss deserved his goal for the way he played, he was brilliant.
“We’ve spoken about how everyone is going to have to chip in with goals. We’re obviously devastated about Collo’s injury, he is a great striker and a real leader for us.
“But as I've already said, we have great forward players here, who all offer something different. We said at half-time that we would get more goals, but we know we have that quality in the team.”
