“It’s about trying to reconnect the team to the town,” says Linnets boss Lakeland

Adam Lakeland wants to restore a connection between the club and the town by turning his side into a promotion-challenging outfit next season.After helping Lynn achieve the Great Escape by avoiding relegation last season, the Linnets boss is confident supporters will see a different animal this time around.The acid test will ultimately arrive when the team first kicks a ball in anger at home to Warrington next month but giant strides have been made since the Lynn boss and his assistant Sam Walker were first handed the reigns last October.Lakeland, who has now had a full pre-season with his players, said: “Last season was one which we didn’t give the supporters and the people of King’s Lynn too much to cheer about.”We came into a situation and did the best we could, but the job this summer has been about trying to bring optimism back to people and get that enthusiasm back for the football club and the team.”It’s about trying to reconnect the team to the town and this should be one of the hardest places in the league for visiting teams to come.”For that to be the case, we certainly need the supporters and it will be good to be back out here in front of them on Tuesday. “Their support is going to be massive for us this season if we are going to be competing at the other end of the division and hopefully they’ll come and get behind the lads, not just in the friendlies but in that Warrington game as well. “It’s up to us to give them a team that leaves everything on the pitch and one that they can be proud of and a team that gets more good than bad results.”Nine new signings over the summer have rekindled hope that the club can put the struggles of last term, when Lynn finished 18th, firmly behind them.And Lakeland is delighted with the progress made as his side heads into home friendlies against Northampton on Tuesday night and Luton on Saturday. “I’m quite pleased with where we are,” he admitted.”The onus this summer was about recruiting well and recruiting good hungry lads who want to be here and work hard for the club and try to be successful. “It’s been about having a good pre-season programme, lads working hard and establishing relationships between one another, just generally kind of bonding and coming together.”I do feel there’s a lot more positivity around the club as a whole than there was when we came in last October. “The lads are working so hard and their application day-to-day has been outstanding, as it should be.”I think we’ve got stronger, certainly physically, and mentally we’re getting stronger week by week. I think individually and collectively we look fit and really strong.”We’ve still got a long way to go to get where we want to be but we’re certainly going in the right direction.”The Lynn boss hasn’t ruled out bringing in at least one more new face before the club’s opening league game on August 10. “I’m hopeful that we’ll get at least one more signing through the door before the season kicks off and we’ve two difficult games here before we think about Warrington,” he said.”They’ll probably be different types of challenges to the ones that we’ve had so far and in those games, we’ll have less possession than maybe we have had in a lot of our other friendlies.”So far it’s been about us creating chances, breaking down the opposition and defending counterattacks, but against higher league opposition we’ll have to be a little bit more pragmatic in our approach and it’ll test our shape a little bit more.”It will be interesting to see what threat we pose on the counterattack ourselves, so they are good challenges for us to have in these last two weeks. “The bulk of our work is now done from a conditioning perspective and a lot of our work to do in the last couple of weeks will be based on shape, organisation and set plays just to make sure that we’re ready for the first game of the season.”The improvements on the pitch have been mirrored by several projects going on behind the scenes at the Walks, including work on the pitch and the changing rooms.Lakeland knows that Rome wasn’t built in the day but also recognised that tweaks had to be made to create the best possible environment for his players and staff.”A lot of credit has to go to Ben Hales who in the last couple of weeks has worked tirelessly on the pitch,” he said. “From what it looked like a couple of weeks ago to what it is today it’s like night and day and the surface is a lot better than what it was last season and I’m sure it will keep on moving forwards from now on.”Generally, there’s been a lot of work going on here to try to give the place a bit of a facelift.”We wanted a better environment for the players to come into and some of them have commented what a difference they’ve seen in the place from the day they came in to sign.”I think as a football club you’ve always got to try to make improvements and take steps forward. It’s not just about what you do on the pitch, it’s about what you do off the pitch as well. “I think the chairman deserves a lot of credit for putting investment into the pitch and off it, as well as into the team.”We want this to be a happier place this season for ourselves and the supporters. Hopefully, we can be a formidable force at home this season.”