Lincoln City 1, Bolton Wanderers 1
The Imps stretched their unbeaten league run to 14 matches with a 1-1 draw against Bolton Wanderers at the LNER Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The Imps led at half time thanks to Jack Moylan's fifth goal in as many matches and had opportunities to extend their advantage before Sam Dalby struck eight minutes from time to earn the visitors a share of the spoils in a frantic contest.
Michael Skubala named an unchanged for the fifth game in a row for the fixture with the Trotters. Ryan Oné, who registered his first Imps goal in the previous win at Plymouth Argyle, was part of an unchanged bench.
The Imps opened the scoring on 25 minutes with a well-worked goal with Reach and Street exchanging passes down the left flank, before the former picked out Moylan. He played a one-two of his own with Reeco Hackett, before side-footing the ball past the outstretched arm of Jack Bonham, who was Bolton’s hero at the end of the match.
The Imps had three big chances to wrap up the points inside the final 15 minutes. They were denied by a double Bonham save when the keeper kept out Street’s goal bound effort before foiling Reach from the follow-up. Moments later, Hackett teed up Street inside the area, but his effort came back off a post.
With 12 minutes left, the Imps made a triple change with Tom Bayliss, Ben House and Ryley Towler all entering the action.
The away side equalised against the run of play with 82 minutes on the clock, when Sam Dalby diverted Ethan Erhahon’s cross past the stranded George Wickens to make it 1-1.
The Imps had one last chance to win it in the sixth of seven added minutes, but were again left frustrated by Bonham, who denied Hackett from Bayliss' corner.
Skubala reflected on a positive performance: “If we keep performing like that, we'll pick up loads more points, even though it’s a draw, on the whole it was probably one of our best performances of the season.
“We knew it would be a tough afternoon, because they are a good team, but our performance was good and we created lots of chances. We had 22 shots to their 10, and to do that against Bolton is very impressive.”
Captain Tendayi Darikwa felt City created enough chances to win the game: “We created enough chances to win the game, so there’s a hint of frustration there but in the grand scheme of things it was important to get something out of the game and we did that.
“It was two good teams going at it. At this stage of the season every result is massive, both sides left everything out there and it was an exciting game.”
Attendance - 10,235 (1,770 away)
Picture: Vaughan Photography
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