Lincoln City boss insists his side deserved their luck against Peterborough United

Ivan Toney gave Posh the lead in the first half, but the Imps won the game with a deflected strike from Tyler Walker and a last-minute free kick from Jorge Grant, the winner arriving after Posh substitute Sirki Dembele had been sent off.

It’s always nice to see off a game as late as we did because you’re not giving the opposition an opportunity to get back into it,” Appleton told the Lincolnshire Echo.

“As daft it as it sounds, I felt quite comfortable at half-time. We gave a stupid goal away, but the performance in the second half, even against 11 men, just showed the character we’ve got at the minute.”

“The sending off definitely helped us and we got a bit of luck with the deflection for Tyler’s goal, but we created umpteen opportunities, their keeper [Christy Pym] had a good day and the post stopped us.

“You’re wondering if it’s going to be one of those days, but then we got the free-kick. If that free-kick had been in the 20th minute, I wonder if he would have scored.

“But he knew it was one of the last kicks of the game and concentration levels have to be ultra-high. You also need the technique to do it. As soon as it left his foot I knew it was a goal.”

Lincoln are 16th in League One, but only six points behind sixth-placed Posh with a game in hand.