On the half hour and a goal down, Rochdale had centre-half Gareth Griffiths sent-off as the free-kick was about to be taken. Only the linesman who saw the incident gave "evidence" against Griffith. Afterwards it emerged that Griffiths and striker Nat Brown were involved in a bit of pushing and shoving.
Griffiths it was said struck the Lincoln man and that was why he got his marching orders. Just before that there had been a rumpus involving most of the players on the field which resulted in Ernie Cooksey and Alan Goodall being booked for Rochdale and Dean Keates also getting a yellow card for his part in the incident.
Bad defending by Rochdale at two corner kicks produced two goals, one by Marvin Robinson after fifteen minutes with a header and the other from Brown twenty minutes later when he scrambled the ball home after Rochdale had been unable to clear.
After the interval ten rejuvenated Rochdale players got a bit of a grip on the game and star turn Cooksey pulled one back for Rochdale with fifty-four minutes gone. Headers by Rory McArdle and Alan Goodall nearly got Rochdale level again but the home side's luck was out even though their ten men had given a good account of themselves.
Lincoln had their moments too with Brown and Robinson both making the Rochdale hearts beat faster as they tried to improve their sides away record having played seven and not won one of them.