Brabin: We always had a goal in us

Centre half Dean Beckwith saw red after just 22 minutes for an off the ball clash with Imps striker Kyle Perry, but despite playing for over an hour with a man down, recent signing Stuart Fleetwood popped up in the closing stages to net a precious winner and push Hatters up to second in the table.

Brabin said: “It was a really fantastic win and three points. Even if we’d have had 11 men, I think these (Lincoln) are a team who are going to turn a corner.

“They’re no mugs and they find themselves near the bottom of the league.

“People think it’s going to be as an easy game but we knew they were going to be a wounded animal.

“I don’t think we started too well in the first 20 minutes and then went down to 10 men. I said at half time to the lads, I don’t want us to be hiding behind being down to 10 men.

“They never did the right things and I knew if we did the right things second half, I knew we had a goal in us.”

On Beckwith’s dismissal, Brabin said: “I honestly never saw it. Someone said they thought Dean elbowed him, but I honestly never saw it.

“I know the lad (Perry) from old, he’s going to wind people up, apparently he’s got hold of his ear and Deano’s reacted.

“But we’re not going to get any favours, we should be bigger and stronger and mentally stronger. People are going to come here and try and upset us, but he shouldn’t have reacted.”