Whitby Town 0 King's Lynn 2
31st October 2009
THE Linnets eased through to the third qualifying round of the FA Trophy and a £3,000 pay cheque after playing almost an hour of Saturday's game with ten men.
Striker Anthony Robinson was sent for an early bath after flooring Whitby's Kevin Burgess right in front of referee Mr Hart.
Lynn arrived at Whitby on the back of just one defeat in eight.
Their confidence showed when they grabbed the lead from nowhere inside the opening ten minutes.
The Blues' defence went to sleep, allowing an innocuous left-wing cross to be headed home superbly by the leaping Kwesi Appiah.
At the other end, Shaun Reay's shot on the turn just inside the Lynn box was deflected wide.
Nine minutes before half-time came a possible turning point when a foul on Alex Gildea by the left touchline 20 yards from goal caused a scuffle.
Robinson clearly shoved Whitby's Burgess in the face and the County Durham official had no hesitation in brandishing a straight red card to the striker, who had just completed a lengthy ban for violent conduct.
Lynn keeper Danny Gay then parried the resulting driven free-kick from Jimmy Beadle into his own six-yard box but was fortunate to see no home players following up.
Just before half-time, Reay's powerful shot was pushed away by Gay.
The resulting corner came out to Ashley Lyth who squared for Beadle to screw just wide.
Dunn replaced midfielder Gildea with wide-man Karl Charlton at half-time, but to little avail as the Norfolk side were awarded a penalty within six minutes of the restart.
Lyth was ruled to have tripped the impressive Owen Storey just inside the box.
However, Appiah's spot-kick was well saved by Dave Campbell, only for the marksman to do what Town's strikers failed to do earlier and run in to net the rebound.
Despite their man advantage, Whitby continued to play with five defenders on the pitch.
Beadle, Town's top goalscorer despite playing in midfield, came close again, forcing Gay to palm wide his close-range header.
Reay made way for Liam Gildea in a straight swap up front, but the Blues never looked like truly stretching the keeper.
A few late efforts in injury time showed some promise, the best of which was nodded wide by makeshift Whitby Town striker Tony Hackworth.
In all fairness, it appeared Whitby could have played on for another 90 minutes and failed to find the net while, for Lynn, it was an easier than expected passage through to the next round after Robinson's early act of petulance.
Whitby Town: Campbell, Lyth, A. Gildea (Charlton 46), Ingram, Burgess, Leeson, Hassan, Hackworth, Reay (L. Gildea 70), Beadle, Scott (Dalton 65). Subs not used: Hanson, Woodhead.
Lynn: Gay, Webb, Rowe-Turner, Palmer, Boyce, Aisien, Story, Magunda, Appiah (Smith, 69), Robinson, Muirhead. Subs (not used): Spencer, Murray, Heggs, McAnally.
Referee: G. Hart (Darlington). Attendance: 251.