King's Lynn 1 Bath City 1
10th February 2007
A LATE penalty from Matt Nolan kept Lynn's slim title
alive in a match that failed to live up to its
top-of-the-table billing.Chris Holland's first-half header left Bath City with one foot in the Conference, until Nolan's spot-kick ended the Romans' six-game winning run and ensured that the honours were shared in a poor match.
Linnets boss Keith Webb said: "I've no complaints with a point – it was a fair result between two very evenly matched teams.
"It was very tense at times as neither team wanted to lose. When a side comes here on such a great run and get their noses in front early on it could've been easy for us to think there was no way back.
"But we didn't go under and the lads showed great character to come back. The boys were down in the changing room after the game, but I said to them you've come back against the league leaders.
"We didn't play and pass the ball as well as we know we can. We need to show a bit more belief and confidence in ourselves that we are good enough to push Bath all of the way.
"I knew that set-pieces would play an important part in the game and that proved to be the case."
Opposing boss John Relish said: "I thought over the 90 minutes we probably shaded it, especially in terms of chances.
"When we were 1-0 up we had a couple of chances to nail it down, they got away and we got caught with a little bit of a sucker punch.
"The first 20 minutes Lynn bossed us, but I thought that was the only time of the game that was the case. After their goal they came at us again, but we had another couple of chances right at the death."
In-form Bath were on the back foot early on, but had the first chance when Gethin Jones punted over from a corner, before Mark Camm curled a free-kick wide for Lynn.
Paul Evans looked uncomfortable in the visiting goal and, after dropping a couple of straightforward crosses, he was nearly beaten on nine minutes when Camm fed Nolan, who sliced his drive inches wide of the post when it would have been easier to score.
Bath took the lead with their first effort on goal after 23 minutes when Holland rose unchallenged to loop home a Mark McKeever free-kick on the right.
The impressive Scott Partridge should have doubled the lead on the half-hour mark when he tried to pick out strike partner Darren Edwards when a shot looked the better option.
Andrew Fisk blazed over shortly afterwards before Nolan almost found himself one-on-one with Evans before being crudely brought down by Gethin Jones who was one of four visiting players to be booked.
Camm hit the resulting free-kick against the wall and then fired a dipping half volley on to the roof of the net from the rebound.
After the break it was Nolan again who was the main thorn in Bath's side as he shrugged off several challenges before firing a shot across goal.
In the 64th minute substitute Jack Defty thought he had got Lynn's equaliser when, in a carbon copy of the Bath goal, he glanced a Dean West free-kick towards the corner of the net.
Evans in the Bath goal was well beaten, but the ball somehow stopped on the line after grazing a post before it was scrambled clear.
Seventeen minutes from time Jim Rollo was adjudged to have brought down substitute Matt O'Halloran in the box and Nolan sent Evans the wrong way to convert the penalty.
Bath were pinned back by a string of Lynn attacks and Grant Cooper, perhaps playing his last game in Lynn colours, had a late chance to seal the three points when he was left unmarked to head tamely wide.
Lynn: Crichton, West, Blois, Cooper, Crane, Fisk (Notman 61), Cave-Brown (O'Halloran 45), Camm, Nolan, Frew (Defty 53), Melton. Subs not used: Toms, McMahon.
Bookings: O'Halloran, Cooper, Defty. Goal: Nolan 74.
Bath: Evans, Simpson, Rollo, G. Jones, Holland, S. Jones, Hogg, Rogers, Edwards (Walsh 85), Partridge, McKeever. Subs not used: Coupe, Green, Clarke, Harris.
Bookings: S. Jones, G. Jones, Rollo, Edwards. Goal: Holland 23.
Referee: S. Feerick (Peterborough). Attendance: 1,203.