August Priske scored twice as Birmingham bounced back from defeat at Cardiff to beat Lincoln 3-1 in the Sky Bet Championship at the ProAmpac Stadium.
The big Dane scored either side of the break, with Alex Cochrane securing the win after Imps substitute Tom Bayliss had reduced the deficit.
Ukrainian midfielder Ivan Varfolomeev’s recall for the injured Conor McGrandles was Lincoln’s only change, while for the Blues Ethan Laird came in for Bright Osayi-Samuel, with Priske and Patrick Roberts replacing Luis Vasquez and Carlos Vicente respectively.
Cochrane fired the game’s first effort wide inside four minutes, before Lincoln were denied by the goal frame four minutes later.
Reeco Hackett flicked a ball through for Ben House to run on to, he backheeled a pass to Mikkel Ladefoged, who hit a low shot past James Beadle, but which bounced against the goalkeeper’s right-hand post and away to safety.
In what was a hectic opening quarter of an hour, Jay Stansfield almost produced a goal of the month contender as he flicked the ball over his head when tightly marked in the City box, span round and fired just wide.
But seconds later, Birmingham were ahead, with a goal owing to some fortune on their part. A Blues pass was inadvertently directed towards his own goal by Yunus Konak, straight to Priske on the edge of the box and he swivelled and fired a low shot into the bottom corner.
Laird could have seen red after half an hour after attempting to bring down a clearance on the visitors’ right wing, but booting House in the face as the Lincoln forward attempted to seize possession and nip in towards goal. Referee Lewis Smith produced only a yellow card.
Dom Jefferies’ low shot was comfortably saved by Beadle deep into first-half stoppage time, before the keeper then somehow kept our Deji Elewere’s close-range prod, palming his shot up onto the bar and out for a corner.
Former Imps keeper Ryan Allsopp replaced Beadle at the break, with Priske testing George Wickens after 49 minutes from the edge of the box.
On the hour mark, Blues doubled their lead. A long throw into the box was flicked on and there was Priske to slide in and poke the ball past Wickens.
There minutes later, though, Lincoln reduced the deficit through Bayliss. Ladefoged laid the ball off to the substitute and he arrowed a ball into the corner of the net.
A terrific 50-yard run from Millar nearly ended with a goal for Stansfield, but his shot was deflected wide, but less than a minute later, Cochrane was given too much time and space in the centre of the pitch to run forward and plant a left-footed shot past Wickens after 73 minutes to make it 3-1.
Elewere blocked a goal bound Stansfield shot and Demarai Gray blasted wide when through on goal as Blues looked for a fourth.
The managers
Lincoln’s
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Birmingham’s Chris Davies:
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