Newcastle's reserve side were in action at Sincil Bank on Wednesday afternoon and as they had been at SJP earlier in the season, were made to settle for a point by the Imps.

An inexplicable decision by match referee M.Brown to begin the game ten minutes before the scheduled kick-off time resulted in a fair proportion of the small attendance missing the opening goal of the afternoon.

That came from City's on-loan Rangers youngster Steven Lennon, who took a Nathan Adams pass before shooting past Magpies 'keeper Ole Soderberg within the first minute.

The closest Newcastle came to a first half reply was a Ryan Donaldson effort that was correctly disallowed for offside, but within seven minutes of the restart Alan Thompson's side were back on level terms.

Making his first competitive appearance since returning from a loan spell at Hereford, Jonny Godsmark was in the right place to tap home a Darren Lough centre from the left flank that evaded the home 'keeper.

Newcastle looked to have won the game on 89 minutes when Dan Leadbitter crossed from the right for Patrick McLaughlin to head home his first ever goal at this level.

However Lincoln were to have the last word, as a slip from Ben Tozer allowed Ian Pearce sight of goal and the veteran defender/Imps assistant boss lobbed Soderberg to make it 2-2. 

The Magpies bench included new arrival Jóan Símun Edmundsson from the Faroe Islands, but he wasn't called upon.

Lincoln meanwhile included two trialists: French defender Morgan Suric and Hungarian goalkeeper Matayas Esterhaz, both of whom are free agents.

PS: the prospect of winter weather conditions affecting this part of Lincolnshire may have been a factor in the premature kick-off - given that our game at Scunthorpe last week was abandoned early in the second half. However, that was an evening kick-off.

Biffa

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