Lincoln City have moved into the automati promotion places in League One after defeating league leaders Cardiff City in foggy conditions at LNER Stadium.<\/p>\n
Lincoln took the lead by a fortuitous goal just before the break as Alex Robertson attempted to intercept an Imps pass but diverted the ball into the back of his own net.<\/p>\n
Cardiff struck early in the second half to level proceedings after Perry Ng chipped George Wickens to cap off a stylish attack after just three minutes.<\/p>\n
However, Sonny Bradley secured the three points for the home side when he headed the ball from close range into the back of Cardiff’s net.<\/p>\n
The win for Lincoln combined with Bradford’s loss at Leyton Orient means that Michael Skubala’s side move to second place in League One.<\/p>\n
Brian Barry-Murphy’s side still hold onto the top spot in the league, however their lead is a narrow three points but they do have a game in hand.<\/p>\n
Lincoln made one change from their draw with Blackpool with Freddie Draper replacing Ryley Towler.<\/p>\n
Cardiff were without their first choice goalkeeper Nathan Trott with Matthew Turner coming into replace him in one of four changes to their Carbao Cup quarter-final loss to Chelsea during the week.<\/p>\n
Lincoln started brightly with Reeco Hackett heading the ball straight at Turner in the first chance of the game.<\/p>\n
Three minutes later Turner was called into action again to stop Tendayi Darikwa’s shot from distance.<\/p>\n
Down the other end of the pitch Yousef Salech had the closest shot for Cardiff hitting the crossbar before Hackett cleared the area after a good defensive display.<\/p>\n
The opening goal came after a bizzare incident when Robertson attempted to intercept Hackett’s pass to Moylan but the Cardiff midfielder hit the ball past his own keeper just before half time.<\/p>\n
Cardiff were out of the traps quickly in the second half to level the scores when Ng and Salech combined before Ng found the back of the net.<\/p>\n
Momentum had swung with the visitors with Wicks on alert to deny Robertson adn Ryan Wintle.<\/p>\n
Lincoln restored their lead after 67 minutes when Tom Bayliss found Bradley at the back post from a corner with the 34-year-old finding the net.<\/p>\n
This loss ends a five straight winning run for Cardiff who were starting to pull away at the top of the table. This is Lincoln’s third win in four games to move one point clear of Bradford and move into second.<\/p>\n
Lincoln City: Wickens, Darikwa, Hamer, Bradley, Reach, Hackett, McGrandles, Bayliss, Moylan, Draper, Street.<\/p>\n
\n Subs: Jeacock, Towler, Ring, Jefferies, Okoronkwo, Obikwu, Varfolomeyev.<\/p>\n
Cardiff: Turner, Ng, Fish, Lawlor, Bagan, Wintle, Robertson, Ashford, Kellyman, Willock, Salech.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Subs: Chambers, Kpakio, Joel Colwill, Turnbull, Tanner, Robinson, Isaak Davies.<\/p>\n
\n Referee: Richard Eley (England)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lincoln City have moved into the automati promotion places in League One after defeating league leaders Cardiff City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[20999,218,21000,21001,21002,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-327085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-fai","tag-football","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-local-soccer","tag-premiership","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}