King's Lynn 2 Burton Albion 1
23rd September 1997
Quantity rather than quality helped the ten-man Linnets hang on for victory at The Walks.Lynn, handicapped by the 57th minute sending off on Tony Spearing for two bookable offences, kept giving the ball away at the back but depth in numbers restricted Burton to just one goal in reply to Lee Hudson's first-half brace.
Martin Matthews and Matthew Wright were guilty of several mistakes while Colin Hoyle was frequently drawn out of position with Spearing stretched to cover.
Burton made the early running with Tony Marsden hitting the side-netting after only three minutes.
Both sides strung together long passing moves but failed to penetrate the danger area.
Lewis pulled off two fine saves to deny Andy Garner and then Mickey Cotter. It was from the second that Lynn took the lead. Lewis recovered quickly to clear his lines and Brett McNamara hared after the ball on the wing. He outstripped Mark Blount and then delivered an inch-perfect cross for Lee Hudson to smash home past Darren Acton.
The Linnets made it 2-0 in first half injury time. Jason Pascoe, Simon Mead and Richard Skelly exchanged passes on the wing before Darren Stride's attempted block allowed Skelly to swing a cross to Martin Matthews at the far post. He headed back across goal and Hudson applied the finishing touch with the visitors defence seemingly waiting for the ball to drop wide.
Spearing had been lucky to escape with only a booking after 21 minutes when he launched a two footed tackle from behind on Stride but he looked hard done by for his second booking when he wrestled Cotter to the ground on the halfway line.
Colin Hoyle was booked for his protests at the decision while Matthews picked up a yellow card for time-wasting, despite referee Keith Hill blowing up band on 90 minutes.
Hoyle cleared off the line and Lewis pulled off another flying save from Les Hornby's 25-yard volley as Burton upped the tempo.
But the keeper could do nothing to stop Steve Spooner heading in from close range after Garner flicked on Hornby's corner.
McNamara was switched to wing back as Morris threw on Steve Williams for Skelly and Lynn's eight man defence managed to hold on for victory.
Lynn: Lewis, Matthews, Skelly, Wright (Williams 76), Hoyle, Spearing, Pascoe, Mead, Roberts, McNamara, Hudson. Sub not used - Stock, Hopkins
Burton: Acton, Davies, Hornby, Blount, Benton (Gooderick 82), Spooner, Stride, Cotter, Marsden, Garner, Devaney. Subs not used: Palmer, Lyons.
| MATCH STATISTICS | Shots on Target | Shots off Target | Corners | Caught Offside | Free kicks Conceded |
Bookings/S-off |
| Lynn | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 17 |
Spearing (foul, 21) Spearing (foul, 57) Hoyle (dissent, 57) Matthews (time wasting, 80) Spearing (57) 
|
| Burton | 10 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 17 | Spooner (foul, 9) |
| Lynn News Man of the Match - | ||||||