Birmingham City 1, Lincoln City 0
A penalty was enough to break City’s stubborn resistance at St. Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park, as they were edged out by runaway league leaders Birmingham City.
The Imps had battled valiantly throughout the contest against a Blues side who went into it defending the only unbeaten home record in Sky Bet League One.
They were ultimately undone when substitute Sam Clucas was penalised for a foul on Tomoki Iwata after 71 minutes, with Kieran Dowell’s spot kick proving decisive.
City head coach Michael Skubala made two changes to the side that beat Crawley Town 4-1 last Tuesday, with skipper Paudie O’Connor immediately reinstated after serving a two-game suspension.
“I’m really proud of the lads, there were some really big performances out there against a quality side,” said the Imps’ boss.
“Obviously I’m frustrated that we’ve lost the game, but we can take plenty of heart from how we performed.
“I thought the lads were excellent and the fans were fantastic. They got right behind the team because they could see how hard they worked.
“This is a tough place to come, they are probably a better team now than what they were in the Championship last season.
“They have some quality players but I thought for large spells we matched them. You could see that the lads were working really hard out there and didn’t give much away.”
He added: “I think a draw would have been a fair result, I’m not sure they would have had enough to break us down without the penalty.
“The backline was excellent, and you have to defend well against these teams and I was also really pleased with the work rate in front of them.
“To a man, we put everything on the line and I’m disappointed for them that their efforts weren’t rewarded with a result that I think they deserved.
“It was disappointing to lose in the way we did, you don’t want to be undone by a penalty but the reaction from the team was fantastic.
“We really pushed for an equaliser and on another day, we could have nicked something.”