King's Lynn 4 Bath City 1

1st April 2000

LINNETS put paid to Bath’s fading title hopes with a scintillating second half display which brought them four goals.
It was obviously going to be winger Dave Puttnam’s day as he tore apart the Romans, had a hand in every goal, scored twice and scooped the promotion draw first prize of £125 as King’s Lynn scored as many goals in that half as they have all year at home in the league.
It was no accident that manager Gary Mills had a virtually full squad to pick from, with the return of himself, Jon Palmer and Lee Gibson.
“It’s a massive factor. Ever since some lads were released, we’ve been playing more direct with Dave Robinson up front,” he said.
“Losing Mark Harbottle and myself, we’ve not really had anyone playing it in the middle. Now we had three extra bodies back, we could play it to feet.
“Dave (Puttnam)’s been struggling with his Achilles for a long time. It takes a lot of treatment before he can go out on the field.
“But he performed the way we want him to perform. It’s nice to win in the style we did.”
Bath, who had to wear Lynn’s away kit because of a clash of colours, were perhaps fortunate to be 1-0 up at half-time.
The Romans’ tall keeper Elliott Jackson had to be at his best to tip over first half efforts from Mills with a quick free-kick and Puttnam with a header from Palmer’s centre.
The visitors had their chances, Mark Harrington
missed the ball when well-placed to bury Martin Paul’s knockdown.
David Mehew was superbly denied by Chuck Martini and agonisingly saw his weak shot bobble wide.
Puttnam was again denied when Simon Dakin curled a delightful ball around the defence and the winger’s attempt was fisted clear by Jackson.
But the west country side went ahead on the half-hour when top scorer Paul found space to neatly head in Scott Walker’s free-kick.
However, Lynn never looked back from scoring twice in the first seven minutes of the second half.
A bad back-header by Jon Holloway let in Puttnam, who outpaced the defence and slid the ball into the bottom corner of the net.
Then, from Puttnam’s corner, Harrington nodded off the line from Dave Robinson and after a goalmouth melee Palmer guided the ball straight back in to put the hosts ahead.
Bath’s best chance of the second period came after 70 minutes when Mehew’s close range effort was expertly blocked by Martini and the follow-up from Paul was deflected for a corner.
Lynn sealed the game with two late goals. Following a foul on Puttnam, Mills curled a free-kick into the top corner off the post to spark a passionate celebration.
Five minutes later, Puttnam beat the offside trap to latch onto a Mark Turner through-ball to slot home.
Lynn: Martini, Dakin,Spearing, Robinson, Fuff, Nwadike ,Mills (Gibson 85), Clark, Palmer (Rowland 85), Turner, Puttnam (Bogan 89).
Bath City: Jackson, James, Walker, Harrington (Fraser 67), Towler, Campagna, Davis, Holloway, Mehew, Paul, Cox. Subs (not used) Skidmore, White.

MATCH STATISTICS	Shots on Target	Shots off Target	Corners	Caught Offside	Free kicks Conceded	Bookings
Lynn	15	2	8	4	15	Fuff (foul 66)
Bath City	6	6	8	5	18	Mehew (dissent 69)
Lynn News Man of the Match -Dave Puttnam