King's Lynn 2 Crawley Town 0

6th January 2001

A SUPERB all-round display which caretaker manager Tony Spearing rated as the best of the season against a physical side earned Linnets three welcome points.
Goals from defenders Simon Dakin and Glen Fuff secured their first win of the year and their first league victory for five games, and Lynn even had two good penalty appeals turned down.
Lynn's first goal was also their 50th of the season and they deserved to win by out battling a big Crawley side who were fourth in the table.
Most prominent was Emeka Nwadike, who seemed to be everywhere making crucial tackles.
"In the team talk we knew how important it was for Macca to get his first tackle in and it would spark the team into action;" said Spearing.
Lynn had slipped down the table in recent weeks, but this will ease any worries over a relegation battle.
So tight is the league that even though Linnets are lower-mid table, they are only six points off third place.
"I'm thrilled to pieces. We outplayed and out battled them, I thought we played extremely well," said Spearing.
"We've probably played better in patches, but for the 90 minutes it was the best we've done.
"We kept going forward, defended very strongly and I don't think Chuck had much to do."
Sure, there were mistakes but there were many of those in the mud, particularly from the visitors.
"The referee will have done better and on another day we would have had two penalties," added Spearing.
"Simon Dakin's been getting in some great positions and since I took over he has done extremely well.
"Lyndon did brilliantly to chase down a nothing ball to set up the second goal for Fuffy. I had a moan about corners beforehand. We hadn't been getting anything from them. I said let's change it around."
Lyndon Rowland and Adie Hayes threatened early on, while Crawley created few chances.
Tommy Wright played a great ball over the top, and Rowland beat keeper Andy Little and John Ugbah to the ball, but unluckily for the Lynn forward Marc Pullan cleared off the line.
Rowland then put Wright through and he could have had a shot, but Little seemed to catch the diminutive winger with his legs.
Wright's theatrical dive did not help - obviously this trait is circulating round the referees' grapevine.
Early in the second half it was Craig Clark's turn for a lovely dink over the top, which Rowland chased and crossed from the left for Dakin, dashing in the box late, to loop a header over Little and in the net.
Linnets had another good penalty appeal turned down after 65 minutes when Nwadike dispossessed Pullan, burst into the box and was clearly pushed by Keith Sharman.
But Lynn got their just desserts when Rowland chased a lost cause to earn a corner.
This was taken by Jamie March and bullet headed home by Fuff from the edge of the box.
Crawley's best chance came in seven minutes' stoppage time, when in frantic goalmouth action Danny Carroll poked a cross round the post and was injured in the process.
Lynn: Martini, Dakin, Clark, Robinson, Full, March, Nwadike (Gibson 83), Hayes, Palmer (Spearing 90), Rowland, Wright (Bush 70).
Crawley: A. Little, K. Sharman, M. Woolf, M. Taylor (N. Brake 63), M. Pullen, J. Ugbah, D. Carroll, L. Anderson, S. Mean, M. Hynes, D. Powell (I. Payne 83). Not used: D. Wackett.
Att: 630.

MATCH STATISTICS	Shots on Target	Shots off Target	Corners	Caught Offside	Free kicks Conceded	Bookings
Lynn	4	3	4	5	14	Wright (45, diving) Palmer (68, pushing) Dakin (75, foul)
Crawley	1	4	12	2	16	Mean (38, foul) Anderson (76, pushing)

Lynn News Man of the Match - Emeka Nwadike