Maguire anonymous, Stewart's penalty appeals and tactical switch
After several near misses and opportunities to break the dead lock Ross Stewart thought he had finally unpicked Lincoln’s stretched defence.
The Sunderland frontman has netted 22 goals this season and appeared to have earned his side a valuable three points when he headed Dennis Cirkin’s cross towards the corner of the goal in stoppage-time.
His connection with the ball couldn’t have been much better, as Stewart appeared to run off in celebration. He, like most of the 10,346 fans inside the LNER Stadium, thought - for a split second - that a dramatic late winner was on the cards.
That was until Lincoln goal keeper Jordan Wright sprung to his left and palmed the ball away. Another chance gone.
For Sunderland this was a display which once again showed the improvements that have been made under Alex Neil, yet, with games running out and play-off hopes still in the balance, it also represented two points dropped.
Here are some of the moments you may have missed:
Ross Stewart’ s penalty appeals
As we saw when Sunderland won 3-0 at Wigan last month, an early goal can significantly shape the course of a match.
The Black Cats were also awarded a penalty in that game at the DW Stadium, and could argue there should have been at least one spot kick here.
There were multiple instances when Stewart went down in the box following a tussle from Sunderland corners.
On one occasion in the second half Lincoln defender Adam Jackson had a handful of the striker’s shirt as he pulled Stewart to the floor. Yet, despite the forward’s protests to the linesman, nothing was given.
Chris Maguire’s quiet afternoon
A lot was made of Chris Maguire’s return to the Lincoln side, especially after the forward’s hat-trick against Sunderland in January.
The33-year-oldstruggledto make an impact here, though, operating just behind Lincoln’ s front two of Tom Hopper and John Marquis.
Maguire’s influence was summed up during a moment in the first half when the hosts tried to play a short corner without Sunderland realising.
Patrick Roberts was alert to the move and managed to get to the ball ahead of Maguire, before starting another Black Cats attack.
Maguire also received some stick when he went over to take acorn erin front of the Sunderlandfans in the second half, yet he looked a shadow of the player from the reverse fixture.
Lincoln’s tactical switch After Sunderland boss Alex Neil had elected to stick with a back three and wing-backs to match Lincoln up, Imps boss Michael Appleton decided to mix things up with 25 minutes remaining.
With his side under pressure, Appleton withdrew defender Joe Walsh, who had been booked, to bring on wing er Morgan Whittaker, switching to a 4-4-2 system.
That move led to Lincoln’s best spell of pressure as the game opened up, and the hosts came close to opening the scoringwhen Li am Cullen, another substitute, was denied by an excellent save from Anthony Patterson.
Sunderland managed to wrestle back momentum in the closing stages, yet not even Stewart’s last-gasp header was enough to force a winner.