King's Lynn 1 Belper Town 2
17th November 2012
Gary Setchell was keen to focus on the positive aspects of his team's display rather than dwell on Lynn's second loss in the space of a week.
The Linnets suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time this campaign and lost their proud unbeaten home record with it, in a game where another stirring second half effort almost earned them an unlikely point.
On-loan Histon playmaker George Thomson, signed by the club along with former midfielder Danny White on Thursday night, had an impressive first game in Lynn colours to win praise from his manager.
Setchell said: "George came in and I thought he was excellent for us today.
"He passes the ball very well and he did everything I wanted him to do. He was a major plus point."
On the defeat itself, Setchell said: "We didn't lose through a lack of effort and it wasn't through no passion or pride. It was down to a couple of individual errors and no luck in front of goal.
"We've probably made the same errors this season but lads haven't put them in the top cormer like they did on Saturday."
Setchell acknowledged this his side's luck had finally ran out.
"I've said that that we can't keep getting out of jail and on Saturday it finally caught up with us. You can't keep giving other sides two-goal starts and expecting to get away with it.
'We gifted them their first goal. Their keeper punted it down the field, one of their players had one touch, and we're picking it out of the net.
"While we're licking our wounds we gave their lad far too much space and it's 2-0 within a few minutes.
"They were magnificent finishes but from our point of view they were poor goals to give away and we gave ourselves a mountain to climb.
"The second-half spirit of the lads was excellent, we did what we'd done all season, but we couldn't manage to get the points."
Setchell added: "I said to the lads in the dressing room - we were second in the league after 14 games but if you lose the next 26 you'll finish in the bottom five'.
"We started slowly on Tuesday and started very slowly against Belper.
"We've now had two stark reminders that if you're not at it for 90 minutes that there are teams in this league who are going to hurt you."
Stunning first-half efforts, in the space of three minutes, from Shaun Tuton and Mark Ward put Belper in control.
But, as so many times this season, the Linnets were a different propostion after the interval.
Russell Dunkley pulled a goal back with a vicious strike, while Ross Watson and new-boy Thomson both hit the woodwork as Lynn came close to salvaging another point from nothing.
Lynn:Gay, Watson, Yong, Fryatt, Gulliver, Bunting (Turner 62), Spriggs, Quigley, Dunkley, Thomson, Thurlbourne (White 80) Subs: Bexfield, Turner, Buhlemann, White, Street.. Booked: Gulliver, Watson. Scorer: Dunkley 77
Belper: Ratcliffe, Pride, Rushbury, Marrison, Roulston, Colley, Harrison, Warne, Ward (Stephens h/t), Tuton (Froggatt 76), Stirrup Subs: Stephens, Deakin, Froggatt, Chapman. Scorer: Tuton 21, Ward 24
Attendance: 585