A Rene Howe penalty and some excellent Rob Burch goalkeeping saw City emerge with the points against Macclesfield Town at Moss Rose on Saturday afternoon.
After an evenly-matched opening half, City netted what turned out to be the winner in the 70th minute when Howe fired home from the spot after Moses Swaibu was dragged to the deck by Town goalkeeper Jon Brain after Richard Butcher had flicked a Stefan Oakes free-kick into the centre-back's path.
City were always a threat going forwards but it was thanks to some late heroics by Burch that the three points came the Imps' way. The Lincoln number one twice denied Macclesfield substitute Ricky Sappleton on two occasions whilst in the dying stages of added time he was there to block a powerful Hamza Bencherif drive.
MATCH FACTS
LINCOLN CITY
1 Rob BURCH
6 Danny HONE
5 Moses SWAIBU
22 Adam WATTS
3 Aaron BROWN
7 Stefan OAKES
8 Richard BUTCHER
19 Shane CLARKE
21 Sergio TORRES
23 Anthony PULIS
18 Rene HOWE
subs
15 Jamie CLARKE (for PULIS 64)
11 Scott KERR (for OAKES 75)
16 Joe HEATH (for TORRES 80)
10 Chris FAGAN
13 Ian PEARCE
14 Lenell JOHN-LEWIS
20 Paul MUSSELWHITE
GOAL: HOWE (70 pen)
BOOKING: OAKES (61)
MACCLESFIELD TOWN
1 Jon BRAIN
2 Izak REID
3 Carl TREMARCO
16 Shaun BRISLEY
5 Nat BROWN
20 Hamza BENCHERIF
7 Lee BELL
11 Ben WRIGHT
14 John ROONEY
9 Emile SINCLAIR
17 Colin DANIEL
subs
22 Ricky SAPPLETON (for SINCLAIR 76)
23 Matthew TIPTON (for WRIGHT 82)
15 Paul BOLLAND (for BELL 86)
8 Ross DRAPER
10 Stephen REED
19 Matthew LOWE
13 Jose VEIGA
BOOKINGS: BELL (68), BRISLEY (73), BENCHERIF (78)
MATCH OFFICIALS
REFEREE: Karl Evans
ASSISTANTS: Wayne Barratt & Paul Kettlewell
FOURTH OFFICIAL: Paul Norris
ATTENDANCE: 2,006 (338 City supporters)
