Ipswich Town 2 Lincoln City 2: FA Cup upset avoided as home side grab late draw

DANNY COWLEY saluted his Lincoln heroes as they came within four minutes of a huge upset.

Theo Robinson netted twice for the National League leaders but Tom Lawrence broke the Imps’ hearts with a late leveller.

Leicester loanee Lawrence, who had never scored a cup goal before this game, also cancelled out Robinson’s opener.

And it needed a stoppage-time clearance from Josh Emmanuel to stop Lincoln snatching right it at the death.

But on this display the Imps will be favourites in the Sincil Bank replay, which is pencilled in for Tuesday week.

Lincoln did everything but win, as under-fire Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy was quick to acknowledge.

Boss Cowley, who quit his job as a PE teacher and left Braintree for Lincoln last summer, saluted his players and the 5,000-strong travelling fans.

He said: “There’s a tinge of disappointment in the dressing room but the lads were absolutely heroic.

“The overriding emotion is one of pride. We found a new level today. We went toe-to-toe with a good Championship team and gave a really good account of ourselves.

“It was snatched away from us when we were close to doing something we would remember for the rest of our lives.

“To play 4-4-2 is pretty brave. We knew what might happen if we didn’t quite get it right – but we wanted to be us because we’d earned the right and deserved to be here.”

Lincoln controlled the game and McCarthy was booed off at the end and even taunted by chants of ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning.’

He said: “Tom has got us all out of jail. Lincoln were excellent and were unfortunate not to win. There were quite a few disappointments. It’s not easy playing against a team so full of confidence.”

Cowley added: “We said in the week that success for us would be to receive a standing ovation from our fans — and we did that.

“We asked the players to bring their A-game plus another ten per cent – and to a man they did that.”

Lincoln took a seventh-minute lead when Robinson got between Emmanuel and Adam Webster to prod in Nathan Arnold’s cross.

But just five minutes later Ipswich were level as Lawrence’s shot, after  a dazzling run, squirmed through Lincoln keeper Paul Farman.

Lincoln  went ahead again in the 65th minute lead when Christophe Berra’s header back fell short and Robinson’s volley left Dean Gerken helpless.

Lawrence rescued Ipswich in the 86th minute with a 25-yarder effort that squeezed past the diving Farman.

But Lincoln still almost snatched a winner when Emmanuel slid in to stop Alex Woodyard.