They never said it would be easy and old foes Lincoln punctured Wanderers’ unbeaten Championship start with a smash-and-grab at the Toughsheet Community Stadium, writes Pete Oliver.
After five seasons slugging it out in League One the sides met again – albeit for the first time in more than 90 years at this level – and it was last season’s title winners who came out on top again on a frustrating afternoon for Steven Schumacher’s men.
The Whites dominated most of the game as they looked for back-to-back home wins to kick-start their campaign and should have led at the break.
But a slow start to the second half proved costly as Lincoln enjoyed their best spell of the game and capitalised with a headed winner from Ben House.
Schumacher used all his permutations off the bench and there was a bright cameo from new recruit Jayden Nelson. But what increasingly had a feeling of one of those days duly came to pass as the Whites couldn’t find a goal to repair the damage.
Following the influx of arrivals ahead of next week’s transfer deadline there was just one new face in Wanderers’ starting line-up as they looked to build on their positive start.
Wingman Sam Iling-Junior made a full debut and was heavily involved in a first half which saw Wanderers again use width to great effect to try and land the first blow.
Lewis Brunt’s excellent ball in from right-back just eluded Sam Dalby from one of the early openings and Dalby was then even closer when Iling-Junior burst clear from Josh Sheehan’s perfect fast to pick out the striker, whose touch at full stretch clipped the outside of a post.
Full-backs Max Conway and Brunt then combined, with the latter seeing his header tipped over the top by George Wickens as last season’s champions clung on to the break in search of their first point of the current campaign.
City’s attacks were far more sporadic between their attempts to slow the game down, although House had one shooting chance he fluffed before being booked for diving when attempting to deceive Jack Bonham and the referee.
Dalby had one more sight of goal before half-time but headed over from Thierry Gale’s cross and ex-Imp Ethan Erhahon would have preferred a shooting chance to fall to his left foot rather than his right as he attempted to cap another impressive 45 minutes with the opening goal.
Wanderers needed the breakthrough to sap City’s belief which would have increased further had Callum Elder made more of an opening in a bright start to the second half from the visitors.
Bonham then had to come to Wanderers’ rescue with a smart save to deny Ivan Varfolomeev after Sheehan had been robbed before Reeco Hackett poked an effort over the top as the Whites wobbled.
Despite a couple of changes from Schumacher, the Whites couldn’t regain their earlier momentum and with 25 minutes to go conceded a poor goal to fall behind.
City pushed the time limit with each of their throw-ins but got them in within the allotted time and when Elder hurled in another one, Wanderers failed to deal with the bouncing ball and House pounced to nod home.
Schumacher didn’t leave it long to change things further with Ryan Hardie and new boy Nelson sent on to try and light a spark.
Nelson made an immediate impact in trying to lift the crowd and when he fed Kyliane Dong the winger forced Wickens into a save at the cost of one of a handful of corners won by Wanderers which they couldn’t make count.
The pressure was mounting, though, and when Nelson crossed towards the near post, Hardie connected with a glancing header and was unlucky to see it hit the City keeper and bounced clear.
Wickens wasn't over-worked, though, and had just one more thing to do to secure a clean sheet and in stoppage time he flung himself to his right to keep out a free-kick from Sheehan to secure the points for his team and leave Wanderers wishing they could turn back the clock.
Wanderers: Bonham; Brunt, Forino, Famewo (Larrazabal 61), Conway; Iling-Junior (Dong 60), Sheehan, Erhahon (Watson 80), Gale (Nelson 71); McAtee (Hardie 71), Dalby. Substitutes: Bazunu, Davies, Toal, Ritchie.
Booked: None
Lincoln: Wickens; Elerewe, Towler, Elder; Jefferies, McGrandles, Varfolomeev (Bayliss 85), Reach; Hackett (Olaofe 80), House (Honohan 85); Draper (Street 65). Substitutes: Gauci, Coubis, Melia, Konak, Wheatley.
Booked: House, Draper
Referee: Ben Speedie
Attendance: 21,581 (900 away)