‘The most unlikely 0-0 I’ve ever been involved in’ - Lincoln boss speaks out after Portsmouth goalless stalemate

And the Imps head coach has insisted his squad was hampered by an early injury to defender Adam Jackson.

Despite the scoreline saying otherwise, it was an exciting end to the contest – with both teams having key chances to steal the triumph.

However, excellent keeping by Matt Macey and Carl Rushworth kept the scores at bay as both sides rallied for a late winner.

Pompey defender Sean Raggett and boss John Mousinho both were adamant the visitors should’ve nicked all three points.

But it was Kennedy who was certain his men should’ve picked up the victory at Sincil Bank.

He told Lincolnshire Live: ‘I thought it was the most unlikely 0-0 I’ve ever been involved in in my life.

‘I thought both teams played some really good football, both turned up to win a game of football.

‘I thought Carl (Rushworth) was really quiet until the last 15 minutes, their ‘keeper had a few saves to make. I thought it was a really entertaining game, but we did get stretched at the end.

‘I think when I looked at the players they were bringing on I was like ‘wow’. They had some really good players, some real talent off the bench.

‘We had players that came on that we were glad weren’t playing, but the problem is you know they’re going to come on at some point, so that had a huge effect on the game.’

Lincoln were dealt a major blow early in to the contest, when central defender Jackson was withdrawn through injury.

And Kennedy admitted he had to change his style of play, which hampered the Imps’ rhythm.

He added: ‘I’m really big on square pegs in square holes, and I thought playing that shape would mean we weren’t too badly disrupted.

‘Although I changed the shape, I thought it would help the group more than if we kept the shape and moved a couple of bodies around,

‘I thought it upset our rhythm in possession, not massively but it definitely did. I thought out of possession it had a big effect on us. The injury definitely had an impact on us for sure.

‘The other thing was because of Adam coming off and the players we brought on, we became much smaller, and they became much bigger so there was a big concern around set pieces, but I thought we dealt with that very well.’