Brentford 1 Lincoln City 1

Brentford’s hopes of pushing on towards the top of the table were hampered by the late arrival of opponents Lincoln City, who then went on to frustrate the Bees as they ground out a 1-1 draw at Griffin Park on Saturday.

After Lincoln arrived with ten minutes until kick off referee James Linington delayed kick off by 40 minutes.

Despite the delay Brentford started brightly and took the lead midway through the first half.

Yet Lincoln were back on level terms six minutes later and neither side did enough to take all three points during the rest of the afternoon.

Bees manager Andy Scott didn’t argue with the outcome: “We’re not going to make excuses - it was a poor game all round.

"The game wasn’t allowed to flow and Lincoln where happy with a point.

"We didn’t do enough to win it and will go home disappointed whereas Lincoln will probably go home happy with a point. But it was a fair result I think."

Brentford looked the more creative in the opening exchanges and, just after the opening quarter-of-an-hour, Glenn Poole floated in a free-kick from the right hand side of the penalty box and Nathan Elder headed inches over from six yards out.

Shortly after, Marvin Williams raced clear from close to the centre circle but, as he burst into the box, Lincoln keeper Robert Birch came out to meet him and did just enough to block his shot with his knees.

However, Birch was defenceless minutes later when he watched two of his defenders fail to clear a thrown in and, from inside the box, Elder turned and lashed home a right foot shot to give the Bees a deserved lead.

Lincoln were back on level terms six minutes later, following a lapse in the Bees defence that allowed Adrian Patulea to burst into the box and fire home into the bottom corner of the net.

As half-time approached, the Bees lost Williams following a clash of heads as he challenged for the ball in midfield - the right winger came off second best before being helped off the pitch.

Ten minutes into the second half, a sweeping Brentford move down the left hand side saw Poole move the ball across the edge of the box to Adam Newton but his shot flew just wide of the right-hand post.

The game degenerated into a stop-start affair as neither side could generate any fluency in their play.

Lincoln appeared happy to play for a point and, aided by a picky referee who failed to let the game flow, they got their wish.

As stoppage time approached Dany N’Guessan wasted a chance to win it for Lincoln as he burst into the Bees box and faced a one-on-one with Ben Hamer, who blocked his shot superbly.

Scott was left to rue a frustrating afternoon and look ahead to his next challenge: “It is a learning experience.

"It is a dip, but a small dip where we have got a point, not a dip where we have lost 2-0.

"We’ve got to work hard and make sure that we can establish ourselves in the top seven by winning games.

"We’ve got a tough one at Chesterfield, who lost again today.”

Brentford: Hamer, Newton (sub Ademola 83), Wilson, Bennett, Johnson; Williams (sub Philips h/t), Bean, Wright, Poole (sub Wood 74); Elder, MacDonald

Subs (not used): Brown, Pead

Attendance: 4,557

Man of the match: Nathan Elder

Goals: Elder 24

Match Rating: 2/6.