Cogenhoe 1 King's Lynn 3
28th April 2012
LINNETS boss Gary Setchell sportingly paid tribute to league champions Long Buckby after seeing his side pipped to the league title for the second successive season.
Lynn's incredible points tally of 106 points � their second century return in the UCL - wasn't good enough with Long Buckby's final day victory over Blackstones giving them a total of 108.
The Walks outfit will now have to wait and see who else gains promotion from Step Five of the non-league pyramid before seeing if they can go up through the back door as the best-placed runners-up.
Setchell said: "Long Buckby got 108 points and I will be the first one to ring their manager Glenn Botterill up and congratulate him.
"I take my hat off to them. It's been a hard-fought battle and unfortunately we've come out on the wrong side.
"We've got 106 points - three more than last season - and I'm sure we'd have taken that at the start of the campaign. We can feel sorry for ourselves but Buckby had a fantastic season and there's nothing we can do about it.
"We've got to pick ourselves up, hopefully gain promotion and try to win the league cup."
On the possibility of going up through default, with the Northern League looking the best chance of offering Lynn a route to the next level, Setchell said: "It's unfortunate that we haven't won the league.
"It's now out of our hands whether we can promotion or not. If we do, we'll be delighted with that after getting 200-odd points out of a possible 240 in the last two seasons."
After the disappointing home display against Desborough and the second-half no-show at Buckby, the Linnets finally gave their fans something to smile about on the final day of the season.
The outcome at Cogenhoe was never in doubt, not even after Matt Gearing's second-half penalty had given the hosts a glimmer of hope.
Stunning first-half goals from Ryan Fryatt and Jamie Thurlbourne, both from more than 20 yards, put Lynn firmly in control.
Jason Turner's 38th goal in all competitions restored Lynn's two-goal cushion and not even the frontman's exploits in front of goal could earn him some silverware with St Ives' Connor Washington scooping the Golden Boot accolade with 40.
On the victory, Setchell said: "It was a magnificent away performance. If that was early on in the season you'd say it was a well-ground out three points.
"The lads showed real good commitment considering we were playing a dead rubber. We expected Long Buckby to beat Blackstones, even if it ended up closer than we expected."
Cogenhoe: Smith, Urquhart, Lukeman, McGowan, Deakin, Leah (Avery 69), Gearing, Ainge (Gillingwater 45), Bates, Leslie, Herbert (Bartley 62).
Subs not used: Kellar, Palmer. Goal: Gearing (56).
King's Lynn Town: Street, Deeney, Watson, Wall, Fryatt, White, Hughes, L. Thurlbourne (Davies 89), J. Thurlbourne (Beaumont 87), Defty (Harris 85), Turner. Subs not used: Hails, Buhlemann.
Goals: Fryatt (7), J. Thurlbourne (32), Turner (58).
Referee: W. Bright. Attendance: 203.