King's Lynn 2 Gresley 2
23rd October 2012
Two goals in the final 20 minutes tonight saw King's Lynn Town preserve their unbeaten home start by the skin of their teeth.
Lynn's fine start at The Walks looked to be heading to a sorry end after a double from Rob Spencer had put visiting Gresley firmly in the driving seat.
But on another night full of drama, Russell Dunkley's header and a Danny Beaumont free-kick rescued an unlikely point for Lynn who had looked a shadow of the team which had picked up 29 points out of a possible 36 going into the game.
Before Lynn's dramatic comeback, a painful display had been made even worse when captain Richard Bunting was taken to hospital with a nasty-looking eye injury.
Gresley arrived at The Walks some ten minutes before the scheduled start time and the kick-off was put back a quarter-of-an-hour to eight o'clock.
Midfielder Dan Quigley was passed fit to retain his place in the Lynn team while Jason Lee replaced the injured Phil Gulliver and Jason Turner got the nod over Jamie Forshaw in the only two changes to the team which started against Northwich on Saturday.
It appeared as though it was the Linnets who got lost in the fog after a very slow start against The Moatmen.
Philip Massingham almost punished Lynn in the opening few minutes as the hosts contrived to concede possession too many times to mention in the early exchanges.
A vicious free-kick from Mickey Lyons forced Danny Gay into a smart stop in the 13th minute while Richard Hanslow drilled narrowly wide shortly after.
Lynn continued to look all at sea all over the pitch and Hanslow�s shot deflected off the legs of Gay before coming back off the post as the hosts continued to live a charmed life in the mist.
Massingham was guilty of missing another sitter for the Derbyshire side before the home faithful finally had something to cheer about in the 29th minute when Quigley fired just wide.
Jamie Thurlbourne scrambled an effort off the line but the visitors didn�t have to wait too much longer to take the lead.
Eight minutes before the break Gay denied Massingham with his legs but Spencer was on hand to blast home the rebound.
If it wasn�t gloomy enough because of the fog already, then things got worse for Lynn when Spencer headed home James Jepson�s corner a minute after the restart.
Hanslow, Massingham and James Barrett missed further chances to inflict more misery on Lynn as Gresley bossed the second period.
Dunkley�s header gave Lynn hope and another stunning comeback was completed when Beaumont�s free-kick somehow crept into the Gresley net eight minutes from time.
Quigley almost won it for Lynn in the dying minutes of the game but his point-blank header was the right hight for Gary Hateley to pull off a stunning save.
Lynn: Gay, Watson, Yong, Fryatt, Lee, Bunting (Bexfield 24), Spriggs, Quigley, Dunkley, Turner (Forshaw 60), Thurlbourne (Beaumont 70).
Gresley: Hateley, Woods, Gough, Strzyzewski, Nottingham, Barrett, Lyons, Jepson, Hanslow, Massingham, Spencer (Minshull 77).
Attendance: 561.