The Hearle World: Margetts injury is a huge blow

Welcome back to the ‘ Hearle World ‘ of football after my very own ‘ international break ‘ of the past two weeks.It’s good to be back after a trip up the North Sea to the fine country of Norway and pen my first column for the YLP since it changed its kick-off day to Wednesday from Friday a couple of weeks ago.With the new season now well under way I’m sure there will be more than enough talking points to keep myself more than busy as the nights begin to close in ahead of the upcoming winter months.Just before I left for my travels I wrote an article singing the praises of Linnets striker Jonny Margetts who had carried on where he left off the previous campaign by finding the back of the net regularly for Lynn.It’s typical that after writing that piece Margetts picked up a nasty back injury that will probably rule him out for another couple of months – a blow not only for the club but the player himself, whose goals were again propelling the club towards the top of the table.Any team at any level of football will miss a player of Margetts’ undoubted quality because, simply, goalscorers of his type are not around every corner that you turn.Taking all of this into account I was then rather surprised when the club announced that the club had allowed Polish striker Bartosz Cybulski to join Spalding United for an ‘undisclosed fee’ a week or so following the news of Margetts’ long injury lay-off. I think the 21-year-old forward would be the first to admit that it hadn’t happened for him at The Walks this season after some promising performances last term. Having an early season injury hadn’t helped his situation either so leaving the club for pastures new was probably the best for all parties.When asked about Cybulski’s departure, Adam Lakeland said the offer received from Spalding was far too good to turn away so it probably also turned out to be good business from a financial point of view.Understandably the club’s supporters became a little anxious for a short time following the departure as it left them with Gold Omotayo as the Linnets’ only fit-recognized striking option. I remember well having a conversation with former manager Ian Culverhouse a while ago about bringing new players into a club and he always was keen to stress that any player he brought in had to be better than what he already had at his disposal and wouldn’t just bring anyone in to make up the numbers, so patience in these situations is always needed.However, they need not have feared as Lakeland returned to league side Fleetwood Town to secure the services of young forward Theo Williams on a permanent deal. Few would argue on the quality of Lakeland’s previous captures from the League Two outfit and as Williams has been on the Linnets’ radar for some time it can only be hoped that the youngster fits in quickly within his new surroundings and hits the scoring trail quickly.Hopefully, as you read this column you will be savouring a Linnets victory last evening (Tuesday) over Worksop Town in the FA Cup third qualifying round replay, played at The Walks. It looked for a long spell on Saturday that Josh Hmami’s first-half strike would be putting Lynn directly into the fourth and final qualifying round but the hosts had other ideas and grabbed a 98th minute leveller with virtually the last kick of the game.By all accounts, Worksop gave a good account of themselves and showed why they hold a lofty early season position in the Northern Premier Division.What was disappointing for me was the alleged incidents that took place off the field following the home side’s equalising goal.I won’t be commenting on what did or didn’t happen on the day as I wasn’t in attendance so I couldn’t possibly give an opinion. Personally. I did feel that the war of words that broke out between the two clubs after both issued statements was needless and did little to resolve the problems that occurred. I hope last night passed without incident and that the main talking point was once again the action on the pitch rather than off it.Lynn would have needed little incentive to get the job done but the carrot of a trip to Adam Lakeland’s former club Curzon Ashton a week on Saturday should have spurred the home team on even more.Mid-table Darlington are the visitors to The Walks this weekend in what on paper looks to be a difficult match to call.Neither outfit has been in free free-scoring mood as of late but both also haven’t been conceding many either so a high-scoring match doesn’t appear on the cards. Lynn will be eager to collect the points to keep them in touching distance of the early season pacesetters at the top of the National League North table.I noticed over the weekend that Adam Lakeland had reached the milestone of his first year in charge of the Linnets following his arrival from Curzon Ashton.There is no doubting the club is in a much, much better position than when he arrived just over a year ago.At that time the club was going nowhere fast, with relegation looking a very real possibility. Fast forward a year, and with a squad that now has his stamp fully on it, the team does finally appear to be going in the right direction again.Lakeland will be the first to admit that his team are far from the finished article and there is still much work to do to turn the team into one that is challenging even further up the league table than it is at present.Despite that, the improvement is vast and clear to see with the club being in a far better situation than it was this time back in 2023.With early season attendances seeing an upturn, there is much to be positive about at The Walks.