Steven Schumacher admitted Wanderers’ first Championship defeat was ‘tough to take’ after Lincoln left with their first win of the season.
Wanderers missed chances to lead before half-time and build on their opening-day win over Preston North End at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
Lincoln were then gifted a goal after the break when Ben House nodded home following a long throw and despite a late spell of pressure there was to be no equaliser as City hung on for a 1-0 success.
“It was tough to take because I thought we played really well, especially in that first half,” said Schumacher. “Some of the play, some of the movement that we had, some of the opportunities that we created was top-draw.
“Everything that we asked the players to do, the game plan and where we wanted to try and get into areas where we felt we could hurt Lincoln, we did. We just failed to score when we were well on top in the first half and then they probably only had a five, 10-minute spell after half-time where we were a bit scruffy when one or two little passes went astray and the referee gave a couple of decisions against us that gave them a little bit of momentum.
“We know what their strengths are. We know how good they are at defending their goal and the amount of bodies that they get back because they're a committed team and Chris (Cohen) and Tom (Shaw) have them really well organised and they've got a really good goalkeeper as well.
“He's pulled off two or three really good saves today and the one that he saved off Ryan Hardie, I don't know how he kept it out. It was one of those days. We got into loads of dangerous areas, although lacked a little bit of quality at times with a couple of deliveries and one or two of the set-pieces weren't great.
“I thought we were in total control of the game but, unfortunately, we've lost it, which is a real disappointment. The effort was there and I think the fans appreciated that and would say that on another day we win that game because of how well we played and the amount of opportunities that we had.
“It is frustrating because we don't want to be in that situation too often and we'll help ourselves if we stick away one of our big opportunities that we had.”
Schumacher gave a full debut to winger Sam Iling-Junior from the start and sent on new signing Jayden Nelson to try and help find an equaliser in the closing 20 minutes. Nelson's cross for a Hardie header which George Wickens somehow kept out was the nearest the Whites came to saving a point and the Wanderers’ boss suggested the transfer business isn’t yet done ahead of Tuesday night’s deadline – the same night Wanderers go to Sheffield United.
“The squad's getting stronger, the bench looked a bit stronger today, but obviously we just need to keep going, keep trying to improve in all aspects,” Schumacher added.
“I still think we're not done in the transfer market yet. We’ll try and get one more in at least and get as prepared as we can for Tuesday night, which is going to be a huge game.”
Watch the full post-match interview on Wanderers TV