Lincoln City slipped to their first league defeat of the season at Sincil Bank yesterday against Bristol Rovers.

In the first game of the post-Cowley era, a below-par Imps side were undone by a second half penalty for the visitors. It was a tepid game decided by two contentious decisions and not a lot of exciting football.

The Imps have now lost seven of their last eight fixtures in all competitions, including cup defeats against Everton and Doncaster Rovers, but are still clinging on to a top-ten spot in a division that already looks set to be tightly contested.

With the new manager hunt underway, the Imps will want to get back to winning ways sooner, rather than later., Even turning a couple of defeats into draws would give them some confidence their performance clearly lacked yesterday.

After a tough week for the club on and off the field, we look at three lessons they may well have learnt from their 1-0 defeat against the Gas.

Jack Payne's Best Role

This isn't so much what they've learnt, but what they still have to find out.

Jack Payne is a talented footballer with goals and assists in his game, but he's not weighing in with either at the moment.

He's busy, industrious and always a willing runner, but he's just not delivering the end product his talent demands. How to get the best out of him will be a task for the new manager.

Cowley Hangover

The rhetoric coming out of the club all week has been that of stability, togetherness and 'nothing changing'. That was evident with the Cowley-esque changes made around the 65-minute mark, like for like swaps despite the Imps needing a fresh approach.

They can say what they like to the media, those players looked jaded and towards the end lacked a plan B. That indicated that the last week has clearly affected them and they need to shrug it off quickly.

Tyler Walker’s Value

Walker came off for John Akinde in the second half and was unlucky to do so; he'd been the one player that brought all the elements of the attack together. Akinde is a great focal point, but he doesn't have the same energy or awareness as Walker.

With a game on Tuesday and just two strikers in the squad, perhaps the emphasis was on saving Walker, but the focus should surely be on the game they were losing, not the one they haven't yet started against Rochdale.

Whatever the reason Walker came off, he's clearly the key man for the Imps.