By Ben Campbell

Wanderers have fallen to their first away defeat of 2008 after going down 1-0 to Lincoln City at Sincil Bank.

A superb solo effort from Louis Dodds 25 minutes from time was enough to separate the two teams in a match that offered little in terms of creativity.

Wanderers started slowly and had Frank Fielding to thank within the first ten minutes after he saved well from Jamie Forrester.

The Blues began to impose themselves on the game midway through the half but despite controlling the majority of the possession they found it difficult to create any clear openings.

The Blues' first real chance came in the 39th minute when after being found rather luckily following a deflection, Russell Martin chested down and hit a looping volley towards the back post narrowly missing out on his first goal for the season.

Instead of going ahead, within a minute Wycombe were nearly behind. Ben Wright found himself in space down the left and after getting the ball out of his feet he unleashed a shot but luckily for Wanderers his shot trickled past the post.

The game had come to life momentarily and the next chance fell to Wanderers and Matt Bloomfield. After being found by Gary Holt on the edge of the area the midfielder let fly from 25 yards but his shot went inches wide of the top right hand corner.

Some lovely passing football from Wanderers was evident especially at the start of the 2nd half and it could have led to the opener on 54 minutes although after stealing into the penalty area Matt Bloomfield fired over from a tight angle.

Chances were at a minimum and it looked like it was going to need a moment of magic to break the deadlock and indeed it was magic, but unfortunately it wasn't for the Blues it was for the Imps. After Louis Dodds received the ball in the left midfield position he cut inside and curled a superb 25-yard effort into the top corner to give Lincoln the lead on 66 minutes.

Within moments though Wanderers could have been level. From a Russell Martin free-kick the ball fell to Leon Johnson but as he was about to pull the trigger a last ditch tackle from Lee Beevers denied the Blues central defender his first goal of the season.

Paul Lambert introduced Martin Bullock at the expense of Neil Lennon in the 77th minute to try and add a spark to his team. The substitution nearly paid dividends almost immediately and after a mazy run 'Bully' should have done better than shooting straight at Alan Marriott.

Wanderers tried in vein to get the equaliser but in truth they should have been 2-0 down in the 88th minute. After Frank Fielding initially made a great save from substitute Danny N'Guessan the ball fell to Jamie Forrester no more than 6 yards out and he some how managed to miss with the goal gaping.

Paul Lambert told wwfc.com after the game: "I don't think we did enough to win but we didn't deserve to lose. We had a lot of the ball but didn't do much with it and we didn't perform to the level we usually do.

"I couldn't see anyone scoring but they scored a wonder goal although we did have a couple of chances through Matt Bloomfield and Russ Martin."

Lincoln City

1 Alan Marriot
2 Paul Green
5 Lee Beevers
27 Daniel Hone
30 Lee Ridley
11 Scott Kerr (c)
23 Shane Clarke
19 Louis Dodds
29 Lenell John-Lewis
8 Jamie Forrester
15 Ben Wright

Subs:

6 Nat Brown
16 Alex Morfaw
17 Danny N'Guessan (replaced Wright, 60th min)
18 Ollie Ryan
13 Ayden Duffy

Wanderers

34 Frank Fielding
4 Russell Martin
7 David McCracken (c)
20 Leon Johnson
18 Craig Woodman
10 Matt Bloomfield
44 Neil Lennon
35 Tommy Doherty
15 Gary Holt
9 Leon Knight
17 Scott McGleish

Subs:

6 Mike Williamson
11 Martin Bullock (replaced Lennon, 77th min)
16 John Sutton (replaced Woodman, 84th min)
31 Andre Boucaud
19 Jamie Young