The pitch had already suffered heavy rain during a midweek Walsall Senior Cup tie with Walsall and torrential overnight rain on Friday saw the ground staff at work from the early hours on Saturday morning to even get the game through an early morning pitch inspection.

The inspection was passed but a phenomenal thunderstorm and hailstorm in the half hour before kick-off gave the staff further headaches and many staff and supporters manned pitchforks and cricket outfield machinery to soak up the latest downpour.

Kick off came fifteen minutes late, still in pouring rain, and Lincoln were the first to draw blood in the game with an 11th minute left-footer from Sean Cann that fizzed past Ryan Price into the corner of the net.

Nick Wellecomme had an early effort ruled out for offside but it was he who levelled the scores on the quarter-hour mark. Jono Gould in his first league start since April turned on the gas to motor past several Lincoln defenders before slipping a neat ball through to Wellecomme who finished confidently from close range.

The Scholars suffered an injury blow to Jack Farmer just shy of the half-hour but it was Chasetown who continued to dominate the game after their equaliser and took the lead with the last kick of the first half when the impressive Luke Bottomer drove home a sweet finish for his first goal for the club.

It took the home side just ten minutes into the second half to increase what proved to be an unassailable lead. Danny Bragoli’s corner found the head of an in-form Richard Teesdale and the centre back powered the ball off the inside of the post and over the line. His celebrations were so vociferous you would have thought Chasetown had won the league with that strike!

Heavy rain fell with twenty minutes to go, but Chasetown made sure of the three points and reduced any thoughts of the referee thinking about the state of the pitch with a killer fourth goal in the 76th minute. Wellecomme, who netted twice in midweek versus Walsall, got his second brace of the week with a clinical finish which left Lincoln keeper Robert Peet comprehensively beaten.

Peet did have the last say though. Wellecomme was clean through on goal, and perhaps could have taken the opportunity to pass to an unmarked Ramone Stephens, but understandably tried his luck for his hat-trick with a cheeky chip which just didn’t quite get enough elevation to loop over the visiting custodian.

If events could not have got more dramatic, there was a brief period of treatment for Referee Mr Whittington – how ironic it would have been had the game been abandoned for a refereeing injury after the amount of precipitation that had fallen before and during the game.

The Scholars remain in 12th with a couple of wins gap to 9th place and nine points short of the play off places, though 9 of the 11 teams above Chasetown do have games in hand on Craig Harris’ men.

Chasetown: Ryan Price, Jack Farmer (Tesfa Robinson, 28 mins), Grant Beckett, Chris Slater, Joe Halsall, Richard Teesdale, Luke Bottomer (Chris Smith, 84 mins), Danny Bragoli, Nick Wellecomme, Dean Bennett (Ramone Stephens, 75 mins), Jono Gould

Other subs: Simon Brown, Danny Watson (not used)

Lincoln United: Peet, Brown, Brooks, Wright, Batchelor, Barnett, Modest (Bowden 79 mins), Clarke (Dye, 56 mins), Langham, Holden, Cann (Newberry, HT)

Other subs: O’Halloran, Burrows (not used)