King's Lynn 2 Newport Pagnell 1

2nd January 2012

TWO goals in the final four minutes saw the Linnets complete a dramatic comeback yesterday to maintain their title hopes at The Walks.
The Walks outfit looked to be heading for their second defeat of the campaign after Dom Lawless' goal ten minutes from time handed Pagnell a shock lead.
And to cap that Jamie Thurlbourne sent a dreadful penalty kick across the car park and into orbit.
But late efforts from Robbie Harris and Stephen Spriggs deservedly gave Lynn the three points in a game they dominated for long periods.
The Linnets started the second period as they had ended the first - missing chances.
They introduced sub Thurlbourne into the action on the hour mark in an effort to find an opening as the frustrations of the home faithful began to grow.
Then big Jack Defty entered the fray with 20 minutes remaining for his first action since the middle of November.
The star Striker's first contribution saw him involved in the build-up which led to Lynn's penalty after Liam Smythe was deemed to have handled Rob Hughes' shot.
Thurlbourne stepped up to blaze the resulting spot kick high into The Walks.
Pagnell began to grow in confidence as Lynn ran out of ideas and a quick breakaway led to substitute Dom Masala squaring the ball for Dom Lawless to slot home the easiest of goals.
As the clock ticked down, Pagnell goalkeeper Josh McAdoo pulled off an astonishing double save to deny both Harris and Spriggs while Dan Buhlemann had a header cleared off the line in between the keeper's heroics.
Harris' late goal set up a rousing finale and Lynn, willed on by a partisan home crowd, found a winner when Spriggs found space behind the Pagnell defence to slide home an injury-time winner.
Linnets boss Gary Setchell said: "We should have been out of sight at half-time and stepped it up even more after the break, but we had a 15-minute period where we felt sorry for ourselves.
"Everyone in the ground could see it was a foul on Dan (Buhlemann) in the build up to the Pagnell goal and I felt their lad was in front of the last defender when he put the ball into the net.
"Goals change games and, like at Peterborough Northern Star on Saturday, when you score one a second one can soon follow.
"People say about Long Buckby's team spirit but nobody can question ours. We never give up and have such a never-say-die attitude.
"Steve Spriggs had a sticky spell before Christmas but over the festive period he has been magnificent for us. He set one up and scored one on Saturday and did the same again today."

King's Lynn Town: Street, L. Thurlbourne, Yong, Buhlemann, Wall (Harrold 83), Hughes, Spriggs, White, Harris, Beaumont (Defty, 70), Coe (J. Thurlbourne 61). Unused subs: Fryatt, Hails.
Newport Pagnell: J. McAdoo, M. Lagioia (Mulkern 75), K. Williams, J. Thorpe, D. Buss, L. Smythe, S. McBride, R. Armstrong, M. Broomes (D. Masala 68), D. Lawless, L. Wilson. Subs: S. Mulkern, R. Tapp, C. Smail, D. Masala.
Referee: Mr B O' Sullivan. Attendance: 698.