Lincoln City vs Southampton; Sky Bet Championship
Lincoln City vs Southampton. Sky Bet Championship.
LNER Stadium.
Lincoln City 1-1 Southampton: Mikkel Ladefoged nets late to earn a point for the Imps
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Lincoln City and Southampton at the ProAmpac Stadium on Saturday; Mikkel Ladefoged strikes late to earn a point for the Imps.
Saturday 5 September 2026 16:21, UK
Mikkel Ladefoged scored his first goal in English football to secure Lincoln a deserved late point against Southampton as they battled to a 1-1 draw with one of the Championship promotion favourites.
Welington had also notched his first effort for the Saints on the stroke of half-time and his thunderbolt looked likely to be good enough for the points at the ProAmpac Stadium before the Imps' record signing struck at the death.
Lincoln handed a first league start to defender Andrei Coubis and the Romanian almost enjoyed an incredible opening to the match, seeing a shot blocked inside 10 seconds after the Imps' 'up-and-under' kick-off caused panic among the Saints defence.
His rebounded shot found its way to Rob Street, whose header was deflected behind for a corner, from which Coubis then headed straight at keeper Daniel Peretz.
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City striker Freddie Draper dragged a shot narrowly wide from 25 yards after five minutes, with Saints winger Kuryu Matsuki's curler then finding the gloves of home stopper George Wickens.
Street found space in the Saints box and nearly squeezed a shot inside the near post, with Peretz getting down quickly to smother his effort.
James Ward-Prowse was handed his first league start upon his return to Southampton, but the set-piece specialist fluffed his first free-kick from 30 yards, pulling a low shot well wide of the target.
Indeed, it was City creating the best chances and 27 minutes in, Adam Reach nodded an Ivan Varfolomeev cross just over the bar.
Ben House missed a golden opportunity from six yards out after Reach's crossfield pass found Coubis on the right flank, but his pinpoint cross to House was met with a swipe at thin air and the chance went begging.
House headed Street's cross over before Southampton struck in the 44th minute. There looked to be no danger when Welington received the ball from Ward-Prowse 25 yards out, but he unleashed a rocket that arrowed into the top corner.
City responded with Peretz's flying saving denying Draper as the half came to an end.
Southampton should have doubled their lead bang on the hour mark, but Leo Scienza's curling effort hit Wickens' left-hand post and bounced across the line to the other post and then into the grateful keeper's arms.
Coubis had a chance to level after 77 minutes when sub Ladefoged's knockdown from Wickens' free-kick dropped perfectly for him, but he blazed his effort well over.
Imps sub Chieo Ogbene was then put into the clear by Ladefoged, but fired a shot straight at Peretz, who saved with his legs, with Draper heading the corner just over the bar.
Ladefoged this time fired over as the Imps poured forward in the closing stages and the pressure finally told when the big Dane nodded home fellow Reeco Hackett's inch-perfect cross in the 87th minute to rescue a point.
The managers
Lincoln's Tom Shaw:
"We've got a player who's a real problem in the penalty area and we've got to help him and he's got to help himself in getting up to speed and understanding what we want, but he's got the physicality and mentality to do that. He's a real nuisance.
"We felt the goal was coming - we sort of reverted to plan B. We created loads of volume, loads of chaos and we're good in the chaos."
Southampton's Tonda Eckert:
"Credit to Lincoln for a performance of courage, manliness and energy. The job was to make sure we brought the ball down quickly and stayed on the floor.
"There were a couple of spells where we did that and not so well, but then we went 1-0 up. I think there's two ways to bring the game home; the first is to score the second goal and if you don't manage that we need to find ways of grinding games out and that was the disappointing thing about today.
"The second half gave us enough moments to score a second goal but we need to do better with balls that come into the box. They showed a lot of physicality but it is up to us to deal with that."
