Steve Cotterill revealed he gave himself a 10-minute cooling off period after collecting a second-half yellow card for straying outside of his technical area in the 2-0 win against Lincoln.

Cotterill briefly watched the Shrews’ first league victory in seven matches from behind the dugouts following his booking by referee Bobby Madden.

And he engaged the former Scottish official, who earlier this month sent-off Bristol Rovers boss Joey Barton, in conversation at the final whistle.

Captain Luke Leahy and Tom Bayliss scored their fifth goals of the season as Town moved up to 12th.

“I went myself because I just had to get away from there for 10 minutes,” said manager Cotterill of his self-banishment. “The officiating was getting on my nerves. You just want everything to be consistent.

“Everyone does it,” he said of stepping the wrong side of the line. “What difference does it make?

“I will get them to make them (technical areas) bigger. What are they going to do then? It is a nonsense.”

On his team’s performance, Cotterill added: “It took us 30 minutes before we put something together, which was disappointing. But in the second half, we were much better.

“It is about seeing out those moments when you are not playing well because two halves are not the same.

“We need everyone to be on it whether we have injuries or not. It is a shift at the moment but the players are responding in the right way and staying tough enough in the games week in, week out.”

Marko Marosi made three vital saves to keep Shrewsbury in the game before Jamie Robson inexplicably handled Taylor Moore’s long ball a minute before half-time.

Carl Rushworth got a hand to Leahy’s penalty but could not prevent the home captain converting his fourth spot-kick of the campaign.

Leahy and Jordan Shipley then combined on the hour, with Bayliss sliding in the latter’s excellent cross.

“Jamie felt he got a little nudge but his hand was in an unnatural position,” said Imps manager Mark Kennedy. “So, it was a penalty.

“My frustration wasn’t so much with that but how slow we were getting out to stop the cross.

“We know what Shrewsbury’s game plan was all about. And it was too easy for them to put the ball in.

“I thought the first goal was going to be key and we started well and had some good moments.

“If anything we looked like wanted to score the perfect goal, which I thought we had got away from. Once they got that it was always going to be difficult.”