Lincoln won this game at a cantor as a poor Darlington side failed to create any decent opportunities throughout the game and city keeper Alan Marriott had an easy afternoon.
The visitors dominated the game from the off and could have taken the lead as early as the third minute when Richard Butcher broke clear of the Darlington defence but failed to beat keeper Sam Russell with a poor shot that was easily dealt with by the Darlington keeper.
The home side did have a good opportunity to open the scoring after 19 minutes but midfielder Clark Keltie misdirected his header from Craig Liddle's right-wing cross.
City hit the woodwork in the 22nd minute through Peter Gain and then a minute later Kevin Sandwith fired a 20-yard free-kick straight at goalkeeper Russell.
Darlington rarely threatened and when they did create a good opening in the 33rd minute striker Alun Armstrong fell over inside the area.
It was no surprise when the visitors took the lead in the 36th minute and Gareth McAuley sent a deep cross over from the right flank and striker Marcus Richardson dummied the ball which allowed Simon Yeo time and space to fire high into the net to open the scoring.
Five minutes from half-time Darlington's Dutch striker Clyde Wijnhard tried a speculative overhead kick that failed to trouble City keeper Alan Marriott.
Yeo again went close in the 42nd minute with a vicious drive that was superbly saved by Russell tipping the ball over the crossbar.
But the visitors increased their lead on the stroke of half-time when Richardson raised clear off the static home defence to rifle the ball past the stranded Russell from 12 yards out.
Darlington failed to trouble the visitors defence in the second half as strikers Armstrong and Wijnhard were starved of the ball and it was no surprise when Lincoln wrapped the win up with a third goal in the 71st minute.
Gary Taylor-Fletcher broke clear and sent a perfect pass to Butcher who fired in low past Russell to complete the scoring.