Michael Skubala hailed his “ruthless” Lincoln side after they thrashed Cambridge 6-0 to extend their unbeaten Sky Bet League One run to 12 matches.

Braces apiece from Jack Moylan – his second in two games – and Joe Taylor, plus further strikes from subs TJ Eyoma and Dylan Duffy saw the Imps close to within three points of the play-off places.

“I thought we were ruthless from start to finish,” gushed Skubala. “I was very impressed and even at the end you could see how much these guys want to win.

“We’re a tough side to play against, we have a ruthless streak to us and the mentality of the group is fantastic at the moment.

“We talk about starting the game quickly, making sure we’re on the front foot and credit to the lads, they did that really well. I thought there were some brilliant performances out there to a man.

“We need to keep our feet on the ground, though. We haven’t cracked it. We have to do it game by game and go again. It’s going to be really tough game on Saturday against Bristol Rovers.

“But we’re putting a marker down and if anyone slips up, we’ll be there.”

Moylan fired City into the lead after just three minutes. Sean Roughan’s cross into the box fell to Lasse Sorensen initially, but the ball eventually found its way to the Irishman who smashed a shot high into the roof of the net.

Moylan doubled the lead after 25 minutes, confidently slotting a low shot past Jack Stevens after a delightful Ethan Erhahon pass.

It took the Imps just three minutes of the second half to go 3-0 up, with Danny Mandroiu’s sublime ball across United’s area finding an unmarked Taylor who had the easy job of steering the ball into the net.

City added a fourth after 75 minutes when Moylan’s brilliant through ball set up Taylor to dink a shot over Stevens and into the net.

Eyoma then fired home after Teddy Bishop’s shot was initially blocked before Duffy rammed a shot through Stevens’ legs to complete the rout.

It was a humbling experience for Cambridge boss Garry Monk in only his second match in charge.

“I am hugely frustrated, I did not expect that all,” admitted Monk. “I expected us to build off the back of an OK performance last Saturday.

“It was just self-inflicted – all those goals were very poor ones to concede. You can’t concede goals how we did tonight. You might see one or two of them conceded like that, but not four or five.

“We made far too many mistakes. We rather gifted them a lot of their goals and the performance has given me some food for thought.

“I need to think a bit more what we need to do away from home. Once a couple of the goals went in, we were a bit tepid after that. We were a yard or two off it.

“We played against a good side, but we made it easy for them.”

Jack Moylan and Joe Taylor both scored twice as rampant Lincoln stretched their unbeaten Sky Bet League One run to 12 matches as they thrashed Cambridge 6-0 at the LNER Stadium.

Irishman Moylan netted two brilliant goals in Saturday’s 5-1 mauling of Barnsley and scored twice in the opening half hour, before Taylor grabbed his own brace, while substitutes TJ Eyoma and Dylan Duffy also got in on the act.

Moylan fired City into the lead after just three minutes. Sean Roughan’s cross into the box fell to Lasse Sorensen initially, but the ball eventually found its way to Moylan who smashed a shot high into the roof of the net.

Jack Stevens made a flying save to deny Sorensen after he latched on to a terrific Danny Mandroiu pass, who then himself stabbed the corner wide.

Moylan doubled the lead after 25 minutes, confidently slotting a low shot past Stevens after a delightful Ethan Erhahon pass.

Stevens superbly denied Sorensen again in first-half stoppage-time, but it took the Imps just three minutes of the second half to go 3-0 up.

Mandroiu’s sublime ball across Cambridge’s area found an unmarked Taylor, who had the easy job of steering the ball into the net.

James Brophy brought a good save out of Lukas Jensen, before lobbing another effort just over, while Ryan Bennett headed narrowly wide from a corner as Cambridge enjoyed their best spell of the match.

Lincoln, though, added a fourth after 75 minutes when Moylan’s brilliant through ball set up Taylor, who dinked a shot over Stevens and into the net.

Eyoma then fired home after Teddy Bishop’s shot was initially blocked before Duffy rammed a shot through Stevens’ legs to complete the rout.

Lincoln head coach Michael Skubala praised his side’s intensity as they secured an emphatic 5-1 victory over promotion-chasing Barnsley at Oakwell.

Joe Taylor opened the scoring before Jack Moylan (2), Daniel Mandriou and Jovon Makama added second-half goals.

Adam Phillips pulled one back for the hosts, but they could not push for a comeback.

Skubala said: “We started the game really well; we started the game really bright. Our press was a little bit different to try and deal with Barnsley’s way of playing.

“I thought second half we were bang on.

“What pleased me today was, the whole team was connected. We were really good out of possession, we were aggressive when we needed to be aggressive, we didn’t give second balls up.

“Our energy and intensity was a little bit too much for them.”

On the performance of Mandriou, Skubala said: “Daniel Mandriou is a good player. We’ve had to play him a little bit lower, but again we trust him with what to do.

“Another player that’s been out the team for a bit, not getting the minutes he wants.

“He came on today and I thought he did a brilliant job.”

On the goals his side scored, Skubala said: “Good goals, I’m really pleased with all the goals. All the goals were good finishes.

“What’s really pleasing is we took our chances. We feel like sometimes we’re getting into the final third and we just need a bit more quality.

“But today I thought they showed the quality in the final third which is brilliant.”

Barnsley head coach Neill Collins admitted it was a poor performance from his team.

He said: “It probably doesn’t take rocket science to work out that the majority, if not all of our team, were way below the standards they’ve set.

“I should stress that the players have been fantastic this season, they’ve taken a lot of plaudits and rightfully so.

“But today there were just so many that fell below the levels and made individual, basic errors that were capitalised on by a very good side, who are in a very good moment.

“The scoreline was a combination of things and the biggest one just being that we had too many players being way below par.

“When you make mistakes and you get punished by goals then you take it out of your hands.

“We started poorly, went behind. But then from that point on we looked ourselves, looked like we were getting into great positions.

“But you just can’t legislate when you’re already 1-0 down to make the mistakes that we did for the second and third goal.

“There’s no question that we made it an awful lot easier for them and we don’t normally make it easy for teams.”

Lincoln extended their unbeaten run to 11 games with an emphatic 5-1 away victory over Barnsley.

Joe Taylor opened the scoring before a Jack Moylan brace, Daniel Mandriou and Jovon Makama added second-half goals.

Adam Phillips pulled one back for the hosts, but they could not push for a comeback.

Lincoln took the lead after 15 minutes when Lasse Sorensen knocked it across for Taylor to finish beyond Liam Roberts.

They doubled their lead in the 55th minute through substitute Moylan, who weaved past the Barnsley defence before slotting past Roberts.

Michael Skubala’s side added a third three minutes later when Josh Earl gave the ball away in his own half. Mandriou picked up the ball and drove into the box before finding the back of the net.

Moylan got his second of the game in the 72nd minute when he let fly from 25 yards out and found the bottom left corner.

Barnsley pulled one back with 13 minutes to play when Phillips fired home from inside the box.

The Imps responded quickly and added a fifth through Makama two minutes later.