Lincoln City boss Michael Appleton welcomes ‘hostile’ atmosphere in Sheffield Wednesday win

The Imps ran out 3-1 winners on Saturday in front of a crowd of more than 10,000 spectators, including 2,067 Wednesdayites, which made for a lively affair on a miserable afternoon.

Two goals from John Marquis either side of Brooke Norton-Cuffy's first senior goal was enough to seal all three points for the home team after Saido Berahino had equalised for the visitors.

Appleton said: "We played a really good side, a side that looked like they’d won eight out of 10 games, had a confidence to them and a lot of Championship experience, but matched them.

"We went toe-to-toe with them. I’m really pleased with the aggression we showed all over the park, I thought we were excellent out of possession and we had that little bit of quality at times when we needed it.

"To be fair, I think everyone was at it. Both sets of supporters were at it, the players were at it. It was a real good game of football and thankfully we came out on top.

“We needed that. We needed almost like a hostile atmosphere type game to hit back and react the way we did because of the performance last weekend."

Several supporters were ejected from the Lincolnshire Co-operative Stand adjacent to the away end throughout the match, with a fight also appearing to break out during the first half.

It comes after Lincoln confirmed they cancelled numerous ticket purchases for home seats believed to have been made by Sheffield Wednesday fans.