Wigan manager Shaun Maloney could not hide his frustration with referee John Mulligan after Lincoln rescued a late point thanks to an 88th-minute penalty award.
The home side had looked set to pick up a rare home win thanks to Jonny Smith’s goal nine minutes before the break.
On-loan Nottingham Forest forward Dale Taylor should have made it 2-0 at the beginning of the second period, only to fire wide from a great position.
And Wigan paid the price at the death when James Carragher was penalised for holding Adam Jackson at a Lincoln corner.
James Collins’ spot-kick was well saved by Sam Tickle but the Lincoln forward steered home the rebound.
Maloney said: “In my opinion, I don’t think my players got what they deserved today but sometimes that’s what happens. Their number five, I think he’s done amazing to win the penalty.
“Look, I can’t disagree that Carragher has hands on him, absolutely. But the way that he falls and spins, I think the referee has let us down.
“I’m normally very honest with officials but in that particular moment… for sure he had his hands on him, but their number five has done amazing to fall and take Carragher with him.
“So I think he’s let us down with that one but if we’d been more clinical earlier in the game, we’d have finished it already.”
Maloney also felt the goal could have been disallowed for offside, with Reeco Hackett – who was clearly standing in front of Collins when he made his second contact – appearing to prevent Wigan captain Jason Kerr from getting back to clear the ball off the line.
Maloney added: “I think there’s a bit in that. Their player was in front of the scorer when he made the second contact.
“In fairness, in League One I think you’re going to get that. One of the things we love about League One and the Championship is the lack of VAR.
“But on the flip side, you’re going to get moments like that, where there are decisions that should be given and they’re not.”
Lincoln boss Michael Skubala felt it was a point gained.
“It feels good to come here and get a point, because this is a tough place to come,” he said. “In the end, it’s not a bad result… not the result we wanted but the way the game panned out, probably a fair result.
“I thought we started the game really brightly, we had some good momentum, we got a couple of good set-pieces and we were causing them a few problems. But then their player got a bad injury after 25 minutes and it seemed to affect us, we lost our tempo and our pace.
“The last 20 minutes of the first half we really dropped off, we were too open and our levels fell. When you go in at the break 1-0 down it is tough at places like this, but I thought we looked better in the second half.
“In the end we kept going, we kept fighting, we ended up getting the penalty and we got a point.
“You have to remember that this is the third game of the week and players are getting tired, especially on a pitch as big as this. You saw tired legs and tired decisions but on the overall performance it was a point gained.”
