St Leonards Stamcroft 2 King's Lynn 4
6th September 1997
Manager Peter Morris shuffled his ranks with Russell Stock pushed forward and Steve Williams relegated to the bench with Scott Darton in for ankle injury victim Glyn Roberts. And it was Stock who proved to be the key figure in the first goal after 29 minutes. He had found the net seconds earlier only for referee Mike Yerby to pull play back for a foul on Brett McNamara in the build up.
This time he struggled to find space on the edge of the area but then delivered the ball sideways for Hudson to smash home from 20 yards.
The home side, with six defeats from six games following their promotion, fielded just three ever presents and brought in ex-Fulham goalkeeper Tony Lange plus loan signings Matt Brady and Keiran Adams from Barnet.
Lange was the hero with several important saves, the first after 19 minutes when he got down well to tip McNamara’s deflected effort round the post.
He did even better on 33 minutes when he thwarted Stock’s advance on goal when the Lynn player looked to have beaten him in a one-on-one.
Franck Chipan wasted Stamcroft’s best chance when he missed the ball in front of goal after a mazy dribble through the Lynn defence.
Stamcroft held the upper hand after the interval but rarely looked like breaking through the Lynn defence although both sides were guilty of some poor passing and regularly gave the ball away.
Lynn’s second goal came out of the blue with McNamara finding himself helping out in defence but managing to send a 40-yard ball towards Hudson.
He outpaced home skipper Tony Burt before cheekily side-stepping Lange and rolling the ball home.
Hudson shot just wide after a good through ball from Jason Pascoe but it was the hosts who struck the net next when Brady was on hand to convert after Adams’ shot hit the bar.
Stamcroft pushed hard for an equaliser but it was Lynn who looked to have made the points secure with two goals in little over a minute.
Tony Spearing’s free kick was headed down by McNamara and Williams stabbed the ball past a wrong-footed Lange thanks to a deflection off Matt Jones.
Then a long kick from Hollman saw the ball loose on the edge of the home area before Williams got his foot to it and released McNamara who finished clinically.
With only two minutes to go that seemed it but Stamcroft hit back with a carbon copy of their first goal, this time Keith Miles scoring when Craig Willard’s shot came back off the bar. Lynn: Hollman, Matthews, Skelly, Wright, Hoyle, Spearing, Pascoe, Darton (Mead, 71), Stock (Williams, 69), McNamara, Hudson (Hopkins, 85).
St Leonards: Lange, Burt, Gatting, Farrier, Jones, Ruddy, Lambert (Willard, 81), Brady, Chipan (Phillips, 56), Miles, Adams. Sub not used: Stonham.
| MATCH STATISTICS | Shots on Target | Shots off Target | Corners | Caught Offside | Free kicks Conceded |
Bookings |
| Lynn | 7 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 14 | |
| St Leonards | 7 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 11 |