Lincoln City delivered their most comfortable victory of the season with a 4-0 thrashing of Northampton Town.
The Imps were dominant from the moment Ryan Oné opened the scoring on his first start for the club. In-form Jack Moylan continued his hot streak in front of goal, scoring for the sixth time in as many games.
Ivan Varfolomeev came off the bench to score the pick of the bunch, before fellow substitute Rob Street grabbed City’s fourth.
Results elsewhere mean that Lincoln extended their gap to the play-off place to eight points.
Imps Changes
After naming the same side for six straight games, Michael Skubala finally made changes to his line-up. With three matches in a week, Reeco Hackett was left on the bench, alongside Street and Ivan. In came Sheffield United loanee Oné, who was a constant threat all evening, and grabbed a well-deserved second goal in Imps colours.
Racing onto an excellent Freddie Draper ball, he provided a thumping finish to match, and will give his boss plenty to think about ahead of their short trip to Mansfield Town on Saturday.
“We’ve seen that in training,” Skubala said on YouTube. “He’s got a great finish, he’s physical, he’s fast. You saw that tonight as well. So I thought for a young man to come in in a game like that and put a performance in like he did.
“But what you also saw is hard work off the ball. It’s taken him a couple of weeks to get to what we want and what we expect off the ball. But you see his quality on it as well.”
Ukrainian Delight
Imps midfielder Varfolomeev has been a consistent performer in the side since Tom Bayliss picked up an injury at the end of last year. He had previously been limited to cameos off the bench since joining from Slovan Liberec in the summer, starting just one league match before the final game of 2025. But since becoming a regular starter, he has been incredibly impressive.
Last night, his minutes were being managed in this three-game week. But he made an immediate impact after coming on, producing a moment of magic for City’s third goal. There won’t have been a more popular goalscorer than the Ukrainian, who got his first goal in English football with a curling effort from distance.
“He tries those shots 100 times in training every day,” Michael claimed. “So he’s got a great finish from the edge. We’ve seen his shots as well. He’s been desperate to get his goal.
“He’s been fantastic over the last few games. He’s really grown into that midfield unit with Tom (Bayliss) and Connor (McGrandles). He’s come on, looked fresh and got his goal.”
Imps Extend Advantage
It was an excellent evening for the Imps, with their promotion rivals dropping points. Bolton Wanderers salvaged a late point at Reading, but they are now eight points adrift of Lincoln. And Bradford City came out on top of the battle between two promotion chasers, leapfrogging Stockport County into fourth spot.
Both the Bantams and County have a game in hand on Lincoln. Plenty more twists can be expected over the coming weeks, as the fight for the top two spots in League One continues.