Lincoln manager Michael Skubala believes his side made it “harder than it needed to be” after they held off a late fightback from Plymouth to claim a 3-2 win at the LNER Stadium.
Tom Bayliss opened the scoring early on before a second-half brace from James Collins put the Imps in a commanding position.
Quickfire goals from Owen Oseni and Xavier Amaechi brought Plymouth back into the contest and set up a grandstand finish, but the Pilgrims were unable to find an equaliser.
Skubala was relieved his team, who have now won two of their three League One matches so far, saw the game out.
“It was frantic at the end,” he said. “It was harder than it needed to be, but it’s three points and sometimes you have to dig in at the end.
“I thought for 75 minutes we had complete control – we had the match plan down to a tee, the lads were executing brilliantly, we knew how to hurt them, we knew we could stifle them.
“We were a bit sloppy on a couple of things and it hurts you, and then a team like that, with some good ball players, can chase with no consequence.
“Then, in the end, I flipped it to a five [at the back] just to see it out and we managed to get over the line.
“It’s not easy when you concede one, you concede another and then you’ve got to see the game out and get three points.
“We’d have been devastated if we’d come off with a point because for 75 minutes we were great.”
Plymouth, who had Brendan Wiredu sent off late on as they pushed for a leveller, have now lost all three of their league matches on the back of suffering relegation from the Championship last season.
Boss Tom Cleverley said his side need to make their mark on games earlier.
“I’m not going to mask over the big issues that we have with the last 20 minutes because I’ve been a player myself,” he added.
“It’s fairly easy when the shackles are off at 3-0 down to start showing that you’re a good player.
“So I expect more within the initial 70 minutes. We have to work on that mentality because you can tell we’re a little bit fragile at the minute mentally.
“We’re just waiting for something to happen in the game to maybe spark us into life or waiting for the moment where we feel there’s nothing to lose.
“If you wait at any level of football you’ll give yourselves a mountain to climb, so we have to really try and build confidence, build mentality and try and shift that into a team who’s trying to land the first blow to win games.”
