Saints got off to a bad start in Nathan Jones first home game in charge, it didn't get much better for the rest of the game, but the main thing was the result and from that perspective we got the job done.
If Nathan Jones was hoping to a blistering start to his career at Southampton FC, then he would be disappointed, Lincoln were a goal up before some supporters had taken their seats, the ball bounced up and Gavin Bazunu should really have dealt with it, although in fairness it did look like he was impeded, in the Premier League a foul might well have been given.
For the first 20 minutes or so Saints looked awful, they were disjointed and Lincoln bolstered by their early goal fought like tigers.
But gradually Saints started to get on top and keep the ball and stem the Lincoln attacks, they started to create chances of their own and then on 25 minutes they drew level, a noice cross from Moi Elyounoussi was met by the head of Che Adams who planted the ball in the net.
Now if VAR would have ruled out Lincoln's goal it would definitely have disallowed Adams effort, he was a yard offside, but the linesman failed to pick it up.
Saints were now on top and Lincoln would barely threaten for the rest of the half, but there were few chances being created by the home side, Lincoln defended in depth and we struggled to break them down, but more of that later.
The second half started very much in the vein of the latter part of the first once Saints had settled more early bluster from the visitors, Saints huffed and puffed, but were too one dimensional in their build up play, but on 74 minutes came the winning goal, Theo Walcott's cross was met by Elyounoussi who saw his effort scrambled off the line and Che Adams was there to net the rebound from close range.
The game now changed as Lincoln had to come out of their shell, next came the third dubious incident of the game, the ball was played in towards the left hand corner of our penalty box, Romain Perraud may have been nudged, but bizarrely he threw up his arm and appeared to have cleared the ball with it, neither the ref nor the linesman, both in good positions close by seemed to notice this.
The final minutes were end to end Gavin Bazunu pulled off a decent save to redeem his mistake at the start of the game and then catching the Imps on the break, Saints squandered two glorious chances to put the game to bed, firstly Moi Elyounoussi being 2 on 1 against the keeper on a break out, unselfishly passes the ball to Sam Edoozi who with the keeper stranded and an open goal, put the ball an inch wide of the post.
Then a minute or two later, a three man break saw Che Adams not pass it and go for his hat trick, but he took too much time and the keeper blocked his shot for a corner.
That left Saints holding on a little, but they defended well and never gave Lincoln any chink of light to get back in the game.
So what did we gleam from Nathan Jones first game in charge ?
Firstly he played virtually the strongest team he had available, although strangely Romeo Lavia was absent even from the bench
He started with a 3 man defence augmented by KWP & Romain Perraud as wing backs with a three man central midfield held firm by James Ward Prowse with two strikers up top.
But truth is we looked disjointed and a team that had never played together before, my first question would be why we didn't play more friendlies in pre season, only two have emerged as being put on behind closed doors, if that was the case it clearly wasn't enough.
In essence we were rusty, we didn't have a feel for the ball or the first touch that comes from being match sharp, hopefully this game will help.
Secondly Jones was willing to adapt when it wasn't working when after the hour mark he made a triple change and reverted to a back four.
Thirdly I think we seemed to be playing to a rigid plan, whereas before we used to pass the ball around and look for openings, last night it seemed that the players were told that after a certain number of passes we have to hit it long, too often we tried long balls that were never really on.
This cannot be dressed up as a good performance, but conversely we should not look too deeply into it, to play badly and win, whatever the standard of opposition, is still better than playing well and losing.
Hopefully by the poor performance Jones has learnt far more than he would have if we had blown Lincoln away.
The issues we had can be ironed out, our first touch was awful, I can't remember a game when so many players on our team let the ball run under their foot or failed to make simple passes, Ashley Maitland-Niles was one serial offender here, this wasn't good to watch, but you know the players are better than this.
My main worry was about the one dimensional pattern of play whichever line up we played, for me it was too regimented, you could see from the stands where the next passes were going, there was little free styling or flair on show, we played to a plan and never deviated, even when it wasn't working.
From the plus points Lyanco looked solid at the back and carried the ball forward well, Che Adams looked hungry and in form, but in general virtually every player had some good moments and also had some appalling ones.
The hope is that this was a team that with some injured players back as well as some of the new younger players is one that can put this down to a lack of playing together and can Gel when the Premier League returns.
So in conclusion, there was little to be gained from this game in terms of whether Jones has changed much from Ralph Hasenhuttl, it is too early to give a verdict on his influence on the squad, this will only be found out in the coming weeks.