Rothwell Town 1 King's Lynn 1
14th October 2003
THE Linnets maintained their unbeaten start on the road, but will have to show a lot more conviction against similar teams to Rothwell, and quickly, if they are to be considered as serious promotion contenders.A Chris Bacon strike midway through the second half earned The Walks outfit a point against a host side,-who had lost four league games on the bounce before Tuesday night.
To make matter worse, it took the Bones' first goal in nearly 500 minutes of football to spark the Linnets into their best football of the night.
Linnets boss Peter Morris said: "We showed a lot of bottle and character to come back and I thought we were unfortunate not to get the three points:
"Once we scored we showed more zest and it was nice to see. You can't always be at your best."
Lynn's undoing was once again their failure to keep the ball on the floor as they were drawn into a kick and rush clash which will hardly go down in footballing folklore.
As so often this season, Lynn were content on hoofing the ball up to Robbie Harris, until the second half appearance of Jack Defty to settle them down.
Lynn were restricted to mainly long-range efforts in the first period, while mistakes at the back looked the only source of a Rothwell goal.
In the 8th minute, Steve Wilson flapped at a home corner and Ossie Mintus chipped the loose ball wide instead of firing his side into the lead.
Hesitation between Glen Fuff and Marc Burrows saw Goode's cross creep towards the target before Fuff regained his composure to scramble the ball off the line.
Lynn finally woke up and in the 34th minute the hard working Harris played in Richard Woodrow, whose shot was superbly turned round the post by Rothwell keeper John Hughes.
Seven minutes later, Matt Murphy was guilty of the miss of the season so far when he tried to walk the ball in and subsequently saw his effort blocked on the line.
Murphy was replaced by Bacon at the break, but Lynn were left with the hard task of having to come from behind when the Bones took the lead four minutes after the restart.
Adam Sturgess won the lose ball in midfield and played in Goode, who spotted Wilson off his line, and chipped him from 25 yards.
Lynn responded with Bacon twice going close, before the same player showed his strength by shrugging off the attentions of Luke Dowling and tucking the ball under the body of Hughes.
After several half chances, Lynn missed a glorious opportunity to take the three points when David Staff's pinpoint cross was missed by three of his colleagues in the box in the dying seconds.
Rothwell: J. Hughes, L. Dowling, R. Weale (J. Thatcher 93), J. Hanney, C. Mcllwain, M. Flannigan, C. Lake, O. Mintus, R. Nash, C. Goode, Sturgess. Subs not used: C. Haughton, T Page and T Smith.
Lynn: Wilson, Glarvey, March, Burrows, Fuff, Holmes, Staff, Raynor, Murphy (Bacon 45), Harris, Woodrow (Daffy 60). Subs not used: Hyde, Ndekwe and Nobes.
Referee: Mr C. Henry (Northampton)
| MATCH STATISTICS | ||
| Linnets | Rothwell | |
| 4 | Shots on target | 3 |
| 7 | Shots off target | 5 |
| 6 | Corners | 3 |
| 13 | Free kicks conceded | 11 |
| 0 | Caught offside | 6 |
| Bookings | Mcllwain (42 late tackle) | |
| Mintus (84, late tackle) | ||
| Lynn News Man of the Match - Jamie March. | ||
| Report by permission of the Lynn News | ||