ROSSENDALE made it seven points from their last three league outings thanks to a late strike from Lee Buggie.

Dale have virtually banished any fears of relegation with this latest victory, showing that manager Jim McBride was right to have a clear out when he did and bring in a host of new faces.

Dale got off to the worst possible start and they were trailing inside the opening 60 seconds.

Chris Scott's poor header dropped to the feat of Gary Walters and he hammered the ball past John Gillies into the bottom corner.

From then on, however, Dale dominated the proceedings and they should have been well ahead by the interval. Buggie shooting weakly at veteran keeper Steve Cherry when put through on goal.

Lincoln came more into the game after the break and Dominic Revell missed a good chance three minutes in, heading over despite being unmarked. Lee Cooper missed another header, and Revell was guilty of the worst miss of all missing the target when free at the back post.

Those missed opportunities proved to be costly for the home side, when Dale substitute Craig Sargeson cut in from the left to hammer a 20-yard shot past the stranded keeper with just nine minutes remaining to level the scores.

This set up a frenetic finish. Dale's Cooper toe-poked a shot past the post, Lincoln's Cooper headed over after a succession of corners and Ben Brown should have won the game with three minutes to go but he skied his effort from close range.

It was left to Buggie to settle the game deep into injury time. Smith's persistence saw the ball drop to the striker's feet and he lobbed the advancing Cherry to claim all three points.

LINCOLN UNITED ...1 ROSSENDALE UNITED ...2