Stoppage-time equaliser spares Linnets’ blushes

Substitute Ben Stephens spared King’s Lynn Town’s blushes with a stoppage-time equaliser against Gloucester City on Saturday.

Lynn looked to be heading for a first defeat home before a smash-and-grab finale saw the injured Stephens fire home a dramatic leveller to cancel out Elliott Durrell’s opener for the Tigers.

The Linnets still remain without a win in the new National League North season – and manager Mark Hughes admitted his side were lucky to get that at The Walks.

Lynn players celebrate their late equaliser

A Josh Coulson effort is cleared off the line

Sion Spence in action against his former club

Manager Mark Hughes and Josh Coulson acknowledge the fans at the final whistle

“I feel as if we nicked the point,” said Hughes after the 1-1 draw.

“Ben Stephens was in the right place at the right time and he was actually injured about 15 minutes in.

“But we made all three substitutions, so we played over 30, 35 minutes with 10 men, and I think that was pretty obvious, but we put big Josh (Coulson) up top and Ben was in the right place, hobbling, and he managed to get it over the line.

“The last home game where it was 2-2 with Hereford, I felt we were good for the win. Today, I think we’ve nicked that point.”

Lynn’s boss was at a loss as to why his side looked so flat.

“I can’t put my finger on it, I’ll have to watch it back,” he said.

“I know we’re a fit side. but when you go to Chester away and Curzon away in the same week, I think it just had that little feel about it, where we were off the pace slightly.

“I thought in the first half, Gloucester picked up too many second balls for my liking and that’s why I made the two changes.

“I wanted us to play more and we started the half bright, then we lost Manny (Oke) and Ben obviously had to stay on the pitch, and fair play to him because we were playing with the 10 men there, but he got the goal in the 99th minute.”

King’s Lynn: Sandford, Oke, (Crowther 60) Coulson, Callan-McFadden, Ronan, Clifford, Spence (Stephens 46), Hughes, Smith, Ponticelli, Bartley (Barrett 46). Subs: Crowther, Stephens, Barrett, Isaacson, Fatadjo.

Scorer: Stephens 90+9.

Gloucester: Jeacock, Reckford, Duffus, Parker (Durrell 69), McGrory, Wright (Williams 87), Pinchard, Hanks, Richards-Everton, Smalley, McDonald. Subs: Hart, Williams, Freemantle, Durrell, Emmett.

Booked: Durrell.

Scorer: Durrell 72.

Attendance: 980.

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