'We managed them really well': Michael Appleton's thoughts on his Lincoln City side's win against Blackpool

The Imps claimed the three points thanks to Tyreece John-Jules' composed second-half strike.

It came after Lincoln had earlier been denied from the penalty spot during the first half, Tyler Walker seeing his spot kick well saved by Mark Howard.

Pool once again huffed and puffed and had chances to make it a different story, Nathan Delfouneso seeing his header rebound off the inside of the post and Curtis Tilt having one cleared off the line.

But ultimately they didn't offer enough once again, going down to their fourth defeat from their past five league outings.

Reflecting on his side's win, Appleton said: “We have now got seven points out of nine so I am delighted.

"We will now look after the lads this week because we have games coming against three big clubs (Ipswich, Portsmouth and Rotherham).

“I knew they would be dangerous; it was a challenge for us, but we played well for the majority of the time.

“They went direct in the second half with ( Joe) Nuttall and (Gary) Madine, they are both experienced direct characters who can cause a real threat.

"I thought we managed them very well, we recognised when to get the ball in the corner and what to do.

"I was happy to see that it was our young players doing that as well as our experienced ones you’d expect to do it anyway.”