Graham Stickler praised his young guns for pulling Lincoln out of the mire on Saturday.

An horrific performance from the Red & Greens' forwards left coach Stickler distinctly unhappy following the narrow 13-12 victory at West Bridgford.

The result means Lincoln can enjoy the comfort of mid-table with three matches of the Midlands Two East (North) campaign remaining but victory did not smooth over the problems which blighted the defeat.

"I don't like to do post-mortems immediately following a match – I don't need to go into the whys and wherefors – but I didn't need to," said Stickler.

"I didn't need to say anything because the forwards knew it themselves. We just didn't get any ball.

"If we had got anything like our fair share of the ball we would have utterly destroyed them.

"In saying that, there are some positives we can take from the result. We won, which means we have now won our last three games.

"And our young players were excellent.

"Jack McGill, who is only 18, played very well, very sensibly.

"Although we didn't get a lot of the ball I felt that both Jack and Will Clarke, who is also only 18, made sure in the second half that we were playing the right areas of the pitch."

McGill was the main contributor to Lincoln's points tally.

His two penalties came in addition to the conversion following Jake Williams' try, which eventually proved decisive.

And Stickler praised the defensive resolve which allowed his team to move onto 14 points in Midlands Two East (North).

"The defensive organisation was very good, again," said Stickler.

"To have come away with a victory despite not getting much ball is a great testament to our defence.

"Our tackling wasn't brilliant but organisation was very good.

"Ultimately, West Bridgford could not score more than 12 points and that has been key in helping us win the match. There are definitely positives to take from the game."