Boss Austin focuses on the positives after Cobblers start with a defeat

Town were by far the better team for much of the contest but paid the price for wasteful finishing in front of goal as they squandered a series of clear chances at a sun-soaked PTS Academy Stadium.

Daniel Powell and Sam Hoskins were the most culpable in the first-half, both failing to beat the inspired Josh Vickers when through on goal, before striker and debutant Andy Williams also caught the bug late on as he missed two glaring opportunities to nick a point, again thwarted by Lincoln's man-of-the-match goalkeeper

It left the Cobblers empty-handed, making for a frustrating start to the new season, but Austin, taking charge of his first game as permanent manager, was not too downhearted afterwards, instead focusing on the positives.

He said: "The result is obviously disappointing but I'm delighted with how the boys played and seeing how Lincoln celebrated at the end shows that they've taken a scalp today and got out of jail.

"We're not going to be one of those teams that get the ball and bang it from back to front. That's not what I believe in and we've spoken about it as a group.

"We've just got to keep the faith and keep working and progressing and learning and keep believing in what we're doing because there were a lot of positives out there.

"We score one of those early chances and it's a different game because they've got to come out, but in terms of how we played and the variety in our play, I thought it was pretty good.

"There are certain things that we need to do better because when teams come and sit behind the ball, particularly on a slow pitch, we need to work the ball a bit quicker to get ourselves out.

"If we can do that, I think we'll have a lot of joy."