Connor Wickham’s first goal for Forest Green helped them back from behind to rescue a 1-1 draw away to Lincoln.

Baily Cargill’s unfortunate own goal looked to have condemned Rovers to defeat, but Wickham’s clinical strike secured a battling away point.

Defender Cargill diverted into his own net in the 63rd minute, but Wickham levelled 10 minutes later as it finished all square at Sincil Bank.

Regan Hendry forced a smart save out of Lincoln goalkeeper Carl Rushworth with the first decent chance of the contest.

Josh March also tested the on-loan Brighton goalkeeper with a sweet strike from the edge of the box.

Midfielder Max Sanders headed just wide for the home side eight minutes before the break and also went close moments later, forcing a fine save from Luke McGee with his ambitious 35-yard strike.

Forward Anthony Scully rifled a right-foot effort just wide of the left post on the stroke of half-time.

McGee then thwarted midfielder Jordan Garrick with a superb save in first-half injury time, pushing his effort past a post.

Lincoln striker Tom Hopper shot inches off target six minutes after the restart, but Cargill’s goal separated the two sides when he deflected a cross under pressure from Garrick into his own net.

But Wickham’s first goal of the season proved enough for a battling point.

The match was played in sweltering conditions and Forest Green boss Ian Burchnall admitted he thought both sides struggled to play at a decent tempo because of the extreme heat.

“I think both teams really struggled with the heat, the tempo went up and down,” said Burchnall. “You certainly didn’t want to spend too much time without the ball in this heat.

“But I thought both teams managed it really well.

“I thought they [Lincoln] played to the conditions better in the first period of the second half, but the tempo was slow because it was 35 degrees.

“But in the end we found our feet in the game and got a decent point.

“I thought we brought problems on ourselves in the first half, we were locking ourselves in on one side. We were naive.

“The problems came from our own issues, not from being opened up.

“Other than that, though, I thought it was equal.

“The own goal was a difficult one with Baily, but we then went with two strikers and it worked for us.”

And there was praise for goalscorer Wickham from Burchnall.

“Connor has not played for a little while, but he’s come into the squad and what a goal he scored,” added Burchnall. “To enter like that was fantastic.”