Town boss Mick McCarthy admitted he was embarrassed after the Blues were dumped out of the FA Cup by Vanarama National League Lincoln City after a 1-0 defeat at Sincil Bank. McCarthy also revealed that central defender Adam Webster is facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines - perhaps the rest of the season - having suffered an ankle injury.
"They played well, they deserved to win,” McCarthy said afterwards, admitting that it was his worst result as a manager. "Not in the manner that they did with the freekick at the end, but overall their performance was better than us and they deserved to go through.
"[The freekick] was poorly delivered and Tom Lawrence who has carried us with his performances and his goals, comes in and apologises, but irrespective of that it shouldn’t end up in our net because they cleared it. They’ve deserved it but the goal shouldn’t have come that way.”
How does he explain a Championship side being beaten by a National League team? "If I knew that I’d pack this job in and write a book and I’d tell Liverpool how they should have done it against Plymouth and everybody else, Leeds going back to Colchester all those years ago when I was a Leeds fan.
"I’d have sorted everybody’s lives out, there’d be no cup upsets, there’d be no fun, you wouldn’t be talking to me and I wouldn’t be sitting here embarrassed.”
He added: "Too right I am [embarrassed], we shouldn’t get beaten by a National League side whether they’re top of the league or not.
"But they deserved it, they played better than us, they were more competitive than us. I can’t really give them any more praise than I’ve heaped on them already. Absolutely, they deserved it and I am embarrassed.”
Does the TV audience add to that embarrassment? "If there had only been 9,500 seen my embarrassment instead of how many million, then of course, it does.”
He continued: "I thought they were excellent today, I thought they were very good. They dominated the game. I’m going to give the credit to them.
"We didn’t play as well as them, I thought they were very good today. We can go on and on with this, I’m going to give them the credit. Anything I say is going to be kind of detrimental to them, they were very good.”
Did he feel Lincoln were more up for it? "It would appear so. It looked that way. Yes, I would say they were, definitely. Why that is I don’t know.”
Was he disappointed that his players couldn’t rise to the occasion? "Of course it disappoints me, I couldn’t come in here and be happy about it, I’d have to be disappointed, I’d be a fool if I said I was any other.
"I’m disappointed with the performance and the manner of the defeat and everything that goes with it. But I’ll still congratulate them because they deserved it.”
McCarthy says he’ll take the brickbats that will inevitably come his way on the chin: "I’ve got to, I can’t do anything else other than take it on the chin, as I said however many million people have seen it. Of course I will.”
Was he tempted to stick with the side which beat Blackburn at the weekend rather than making five changes? "No.”
Didn’t he feel it was a game for Andre Dozzell? "I don’t think it was a game for Andre. But no was the answer.”
McCarthy revealed that in addition to the result, defender Webster has suffered an injury which will sideline him for some time: "Adam’s got a bad ankle injury.”
Will he be out for the season? "We’ll see, we’ll find out more tomorrow, he’s had a scan, we need to see the results.
"If we needed any more injury problems, that certainly wasn’t one we can cope with, to be honest. That’s a tough one for him as much as anything as well because he’s been having a great season.”
Speaking to BBC Radio Suffolk regarding his future and calls for him to move on, he added: "If Marcus, if the club want to sack me, so be it. If the fans are that sick of me, then that makes life difficult for me at every game all of a sudden.
"When we win it’s OK, when we’re losing it’s ‘Mick McCarthy you’re football is S-H-1-T’ and I’m ‘getting sacked in the morning’.
"There’s nothing between them, I’ve had wonderful support from the fans, I’m not going to complain about them either, they want to see better than that and that was disappointing for all of us, even more so for those guys that have travelled up, paid their money and come and watched a dreadful performance.”
Imps boss Danny Cowley said the win was among the highlights of his career so far: "In terms of an atmosphere or a one-off game that was a great experience and one that everyone associated with Lincoln City Football Club will remember for an awful long time.
"It was a good time to score in the 90th minute, it was fantastic. I thought it was a terrific ball by Adam Marriott. He just delayed it, waited for the support, he timed the pass perfectly, the weight was fantastic and what a brilliant finish from Nathan Arnold.
"He pressed the life out of the game for 90 minutes and to find that energy and to get beyond him in that moment and to have the coolness to round the keeper and score, it was a fantastic goal. And I thought over two games we deserved.”