Cowley relief as Imps beat Barnet

It was a tale of two halves for Lincoln last night as they scraped past Barnet 2-1, but boss Danny Cowley was just pleased to get back to winning ways.

Goals from Ollie Palmer and Harry Anderson in a dominant first half were enough to secure an Imps win, although Shaq Coulthirst’s reply midway through the second half made for a tense finale as the Bees upped their game as City downed theirs.

‘For 45 minutes we were totally excellent and we controlled the game and should have been more than 2-0 up as we had loads of chances,’ said Cowley, who saw a combination of bad luck, good goalkeeping and desperate defending deny his side from adding to their goals tally.

‘There was a warning sign in first-half injury-time when Barnet started to get into a rhythm and play with a fluency. I thought they were excellent in the second half and I was disappointed we did not get it right. I am, though, pretty sure I know what went wrong. We didn`t get it right in the second half and we got negative – it reminded me of the dying moments of the Oldham game.

‘The boys were so desperate to win as we thought it really was a defining moment of the season – sometimes you can be so desperate to win that you play to the end rather than play the moment and I definitely think we did that. But, it was a very important win for us.’

Anderson’s goal means he now tops the scoring charts in the league for City with three and Cowley was full of praise for the in-form winger, adding: ‘It was a really good goal and I thought he had a really good game, he was excellent. Alex Woodyard also put in a captain’s performance, especially in the second half when no-one else was playing well.’

Cowley also reserved mention for league debutant Josh Vickers, who came in for Paul Farman. He said: ‘It was a tough decision to make, especially as Paul is such a key figure in what wee are doing. I think he has made a good start to the season, but I just wanted to take him out of the firing line.

‘Josh is an excellent young goalkeeper and I thought he had an assured first half, but second half we all got a bit nervous.’