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The Imps had the best of the early exchanges with Marcus Richardson guilty of wasting a glorious chance to open the scoring. Yeovil always looked dangerous when they did get forward utilising some slick, quick passing to try and unpick the locked City defence.
It was the Imps who snatched the lead in the 29th minute when Gary Taylor-Fletcher put Marcus Richardson away one on one with Chris Weale. Richardson had spurned a second chance in an identical position just minutes earlier but made no mistake with his third chance of the afternoon, comfortably beating the keeper.
There was little to choose between the teams until Ref Mark Cowburn's controversial 45th minute decision to red card Yeovil midfielder Gavin Williams for a hard challenge that left Alan Marriott injured. Although from some angles in appeared to be a two footed lunge at the City stopper, sections of the Imps fans felt that Coburns decision to pull a red card was very severe for what was essentially a 50/50 challenge. The decision to give the Glovers player a straight red card looked extremely harsh and his team mate Darren Way was shown a yellow card for his protests.
Yeovil's problems depended in the remaining seconds of the first half when The Imps swept forward to double their lead. Richard Butcher dispossessed and left Michael Rose well beaten before pulling the ball back and setting up Gary Taylor-Fletcher who struck a crisp clean shot into the roof of the net. The half time whistle sounded soon after barely audible over the bubbling Imps faithful.
Taylor-Fletcher shot inches wide just seven minutes after the break as Lincoln looked to make their one man advantage count. Howver referee Cowburn had different idea's on the hour when he sent off City defender Ben Futcher.
Futcher brought down Bartosz Tarachulski just outside the box and was ruled to be the last man. That may have been the case, but Tarachulski seemed to be heading away from goal which seemed to warrant a yellow card. However Cowburn seized his oppotunity to even up the sides and promptly dismissed Futcher in front of the travelling Yeovil contingent.
Once the sides were level Yeovil began to take control. A 66th minute corner from Lee Johnson found Terry Skiverton and the midfielder's was cleared off the line. Yeovil fans began to celebrate convinced their side had scored much to the 4,300 home fans amusement.
Richardson should have scored a third for Lincoln in the 73rd minute but somehow spooned the ball over an empty net from six yards in a carbon copy of Nwanko Kanus miss for West Brom just weeks earlier. However the Marcus was getting into scoring postions time and time again and his third goal five minutes later rewarded his tireless endeavour.
Simon Yeo broke clear to go one on one with Weale. Weale produced a good
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Yeovil grabbed a consolation goal nine minutes from the end when Skiverton prodded the ball home from six yards after a short spell of Yeovil pressure. It was never to be more than a consolation as Yeovil looked like a side well beaten. Division Twos top scorer Phil Jevons never really threatened against Paul Morgan at the heart of the Imps rear guard.
City kept looking for goals up to the end. Taylor Fletchers jinking runs bamboozled the Glovers defence on numerous occasions towards the end and the striker may well have notched his ninth for the season with two clever efforts. Richardson was only denied his hat-trick by a superb tackle from Paul Terry after a Taylor Fletcher style break through three defenders. It was no surprise when matchday announcer Alan Long annouced Richardson was the Imps man of the match just minutes before the end.
The result leaves City still in fifth on level points with Leyton Orient and just one point behind Yeovil.