AN early goal left Accrington Stanley trailing Lincoln City at the break at the Fraser Eagle Stadium - and if their bad luck continues, they will be well advised to tear-up their Grand National betting slips before the big race goes off.

The Reds have dominated only to be denied on three occasions by fine saves from Lincoln keeper Rob Burch and should at least be level.

It was a dreadful start for Stanley as thy went behind inside four minutes as Lincoln skipper Scott Kerr capitalised on dozing defenders on the left a he collected a quick throw-in and cut into the box before shooting across Kenny Arthur.

Stanley were rocked by that setback but slowly got a foot-hold in the game and Craig Lindfield managed to dig a shot out from an impossible position to force Lincoln keeper Rob Burch into a fine save.

And then John Miles hit a volley straight at the keeper when Lincoln made a hash of clearing their lines from a Robbie Williams free-kick.

But players making a hash of things was a recurring theme in the first 25 minutes with passes going astray and the crowd becoming restless.

Stanley had more possession but when they did open the Lincoln defence off, Miles crossed to no-one.

Jimmy Ryan made Burch scamper across his goal to save a free-kick, while Lee Beevers was walking a fine line for the Imps.

The Reds, so impressive in the last month, finally remembered their abilities and were unlucky not to be level when Burch saved superbly from Lindfield and then Miles was denied a penalty when he was taken ut by the blundering Janos Kovacs.

Beevers should have walked on 36 minutes for a dreadful challenge on Bobby Grant, who was a late replacement for Chris Turner when the winger was hurt in the warm-up.

It was remarkable that Grant got up - and even more amazing that referee Dean Whitestone took no action other than award the free-kick.

In a rare Lincoln raid, Anthony Elding shot wide after good work from Kerr.

But normal service was recovered three minutes before the break when Burch made his third fine ave of the half, getting down well to keep out a Ryan shot that took a wicked deflection.