AFC Wimbledon manager Mark Robinson believes his side have put up with a lot of adversity this season after a 2-0 loss against 10-man Lincoln extended their winless run to 18 matches.
Lincoln took the lead seven minutes before the break when Lewis Fiorini scored.
The visitors were reduced to 10 men when Brooke Norton-Cuffy was shown a red card for an off-the-ball clash with Lee Brown before Teddy Bishop tapped home Lincoln’s second in the 84th minute.
The result means Lincoln are 16th while the Dons are 20th, level on points with Gillingham, who are in the relegation zone.
Robinson said: “We’ve had to put up with a lot of adversity – and that’s not me making up excuses – it’s a fact that we’ve been without key players for long spells of the season.
“We’ve been limited in forward options, but we’ve just got on with it. This is always about the football club, though. It’s not about me.
“Of course, it’s a major disappointment, and we’ve not really helped ourselves.
“We created a few decent chances, but we’ve not been clinical enough in and around their box.
“I thought we’d matched them in the first half, and then they go and score just before half-time.
“We spoke at half-time about one or two things, but we just couldn’t find that finish just when we needed it.
“It’s tough, and the table doesn’t lie, but we’ll keep going, and the results will come.
“All I want is for the lads to stay up as comfortably as possible.”
Lincoln manager Michael Appleton was not sure why one of his players saw red, with the referee saying that it was for a headbutt.
Appleton said: “We’ve been told that the red was for a headbutt, but I certainly didn’t see a headbutt from where I was standing.
“Yes, there was a push just in the run-up, but at this moment, we’ll take a look later on, and if we think there is a case for Brooke, maybe we’ll challenge it.
“It was a strange game in a lot of ways. It wasn’t the best performance from the lads by any means, but it’s the result that stands out.
“We do have to win games ugly sometimes, we don’t do that enough. The lads have stood strong, and that’s been great.
“We have to understand that there’s still around 30 points to play for this season.
“We have to make sure that we are still in there fighting for every single one of those points.
“We have got an idea of the points tally we’ll need come the end of April, so let’s go and try and achieve that as quickly as we can.”