King's Lynn 3 Gothic 1
6th February 1960
IT was not just the typical British attitude of being sympathetic towards the underdog that had many of Saturday's crowd at the Walks rooting for all-amateur Gothic in this Norfolk Senior Cup first round tie. It was simply that the visitors deserved more applause than their professional hosts. Gothic did much better than most people expected them to do - and Lynn played much worse than they should have done.
The introduction of three reserves to the exclusion of Luke, Sewell and Lackey, and a general re-shuffle of the forward and half-back lines were experiments which failed dismally on this occasion.
With Brown failing to pass a late fitness test Lay came in at left back to create a further change from the normal line-up and as a result only three players, goalkeeper Thomas, right back Mackey and centre-forward Dixon retained their normal places.
Even so there can be little excuse for the generally poor showing of the side. And how bad their shooting was!
Gothic began as if they meant to over-run Lynn. They swarmed to the attack and Lynn's defence looked uneasy against such unexpected pressure.
But there seemed to be no danger of defeat when, after eight minutes. Lynn took the lead. DIXON trapped the ball neatly from a long lob and, moving into the middle, scored with a fast rising shot from 25 yards out.
The beginning of the end? Nothing like that at all. Undismayed Gothic kept fighting on and Downing and Campbell gave Henderson and Cleary plenty to worry about. Campbell once went very close with a good header and Downing always threatened danger with his speed.
Then in the 35th minute the visitors scored a fine equalising goal. Hatch cut in from the left and as Thomas advanced to meet him he swung the ball across for SMITH to shoot the ball into the empty net.
Lynn were generally just slightly on top but the defence rarely inspired confidence and the forwards failed to press home their chances, despite an obvious uneasiness among the Gothic defenders.
Baxter and Neilson alone revelled in their new positions. Johnson (at Inside left) and Cleary (at right half) failed to settle down properly and Henderson had a rather poor game.
And instead of being several goals ahead as they should have been Lynn had to be content with being on level terms at the interval.
Gothic began the second half with great spirit and Thomas made a flying save to prevent Campbell scoring. Soon afterwards Downing went close to scoring.
The amateurs were certainly putting up a great fight and it was a rather surprise goal by CLEARY, who shot through a crowd of players after a partial clearance to put them in arrears again after 55 minutes.
Neilson switched places with Johnson but still Lynn could not finish their approach work effectively.
Dixon had a shot rebound from the foot of a post, but generally the shooting was well off the target.
Rackley earned Lynn perhaps the best chance of the match when he was brought down by goalkeeper Paveley inside the penalty area as he attempted to dribble the ball in. But from the penalty spot Chilleystone fired against the bar. He eventually netted but a goal was disallowed because he had played the ball a second time.
The game was not made safe for Lynn until two minutes from the end when DIXON jabbed the ball in from close range after Paveley had failed to hold a cross drive by Baxter.
Lynn: Thomas; Mackey, Lay; Cleary. Henderson , Neilson; Chilleystone, Rackley Dixon Johnson, Baxter.
Gothic: M. Paveley; J. Ford. D, Warr; P, Pearce, P. Mos, A. Adkins; P. Stimpson, 1 B. Smith, R. Downing, M. Campbell, A. Hatch
Attendance: 1,708.