Lincoln City 3, Luton Town 0
Two late goals gave City a richly deserved 3-1 win over promotion-hopefuls Luton Town at the LNER Stadium on Saturday afternoon, with a brace from Ben House helping them on their way to victory.
City looked to be on course for all three points through House’s first-half opener but were pegged back when Jordan Clark struck inside the final 15 minutes.
Michael Skubala’s side showed great character with substitute Justin Obikwu and House firing in the final five minutes to give City the win.
The head coach made two changes to the side that defeated Burton Albion last Saturday. Freddie Draper replaced Frankie Okoronkwo, with Rob Street returning from suspension to in place of Reeco Hackett, who has absent through illness.
City had their reward for a fast start with 12 minutes on the clock after McGrandles picked out Draper who found the run of House and he kept his composure to slide the ball home to make it 1-0.
The home side had several chances to double their lead but did not capitalise on them and this looked as if it could be costly when the visitors equalised. A free kick was worked well into Clark, who rolled the ball past the outstretched arm of Wickens and into the right corner of his net.
But City regained the lead with six minutes left through substitute Obikwu scoring his first goal for the club (pictured below) after a mix up at the back allowed him through on goal and he had the composure to apply a cool finish.
The Imps wrapped up the points five minutes later and crucially, just as the fourth official had put the board up for 10 added minutes. Ben House collected the ball out wide and fired a low shot into the bottom right corner to make it 3-1.
Head coach Michael Skubala wants to keep City's strong start to the season going as success over the Hatters took the Imps to 18 points from the opening nine games, an impressive two-points-per-game record.
Skubala said: "The lads were all magnificent and we deserved all three points. We want to make sure this is a real fortress for teams to have to come to. Fans can get excited, which we want them to do, but we just want to keep the process going and do what we do.
"We put a tactical plan together which worked, then with the depth of the squad everyone is ready to go. All the subs who came on affected the game in such a good way.
"That competition for places is exactly what we need - we know we've got people who can come in and do a job whenever they are called upon."
City are back in action at the LNER Stadium on tomorrow night when Premier League side Chelsea visit in the third round of the Carabao Cup.
Skubala added: "Before this game there was no mention of Chelsea, but now we've got the three points we have to recover quickly and get ready for an exciting game on Tuesday.
"Of course it'll be hard and we know their quality, but we'll put a team on the pitch that we think can win the game. We truly believe at home we can can cause damage and hurt anyone."
Attendance: 9,255 (1,433 away).
Pictures: Vaughan Photography
