“It’s a slap in the face, but that’s football,” says Linnets boss after Hereford defeat

Adam Lakeland felt his King’s Lynn Town side were the better team against Hereford on Saturday as the Bulls displayed a clinical touch so clearly lacking by the hosts.Fin Barnes’ miss from close range in the second half summed up another frustrating afternoon at The Walks as the Bulls gobbled up both chances that came their way.Lynn found themselves camped in the opposition half for most of the second period but were unable to find a way through a resolute Hereford defence as they slipped out of the play-off places for the first time in months.“I thought we were absolutely brilliant in that second half especially, in difficult conditions,” said the Lynn boss.“Bumpy pitch that cut up, chasing the game. I thought we had so much control of the game.”We had them camped in pretty much all second half. We created chances we’ve got to score and that’s ultimately cost is.“I think anybody who was here, I’d like to think they’d agree that the players gave everything and that we played really well today, but ultimately we’ve come away with nothing and that’s incredibly disappointing. “You’ve got to give Hereford some credit for capitalising on a couple of moments that they had and for defending resiliently at times, when we didn’t manage to break them down. “Frustrating, but I’m really pleased with how my team played today – we’ve played a lot worse than that and won a lot of games.“It’s a slap in the face, but that’s football.”Lynn were their own worst enemy for Hereford’s opening goal three minutes before the break after squandering possession from a dangerous free-kick deep in the oppositon’’s half. The Bulls broke at speed with Jaiden White leaving Lynn’s defence in his wake before crossing for Remaye Campbell to score on his Hereford debut.“Incredibly disappointing,” said Lakeland. “It’s our free kick. Not a good delivery. It’s frustrating and Tommy knows that. “He’d put two unbelievable balls in, on the first corner and then a free kick just before that one from the opposite side that nobody got on the end of.”Then he’s been shallow with that one and he’s let the ball bounce in the middle of the pitch, which you just can’t do when you’ve got bodies committed up the field and Fin Armstrong has gone into a tackle – probably just needed to take everything out and put the ball out the ground and they’ve capitalised on it. “I did think at the time he looked offside if I am being honest, but I’ll have to look at it again. It’s disappointing that it’s come from our own free kick.“And I think the second one is just Josh (Hmami) taking a heavy touch trying to drive the team forward when the game’s very stretched and there’s a lot of tired bodies and he snapped into a 50-50 with their lad, the ball broke out and to be fair Tate Campbell is a good player, an athletic boy and he just took a touch out of his feet and smashed it – great strike.“And that just put any hope we had of maybe conjuring something beyond us.“But I think all you can ever ask for as a manager, is that your players give the all and they try and do the right things and the lads have done that today and just fallen on the wrong side of the result. “For me, I think the best team lost but you get nothing for that.”New faces remain high on Lakekand’s priority list, although another potential signing went begging this week.The Lynn manager refused to shed light on who the player was but with Sam Osborne swapping his Boston United shirt for Alfreton this week, it appears the winger was the latest target to slip through Lakeland’s grasp.“We’ve missed out on another one this week – just location,” he said. “A very good player. We felt it was close, but he just opted to go somewhere else, local and part-time. It would have been a good addition for us, but we are still looking.“We’ve had a striker in training with us last week, he did alright, not committing either way on that particular player yet, I just need to see a little bit more.”And there’s still two or three others that we are in discussions – but it’s the hardest part and the most draining part of the job.“I could pick up the phone and bring three players in tomorrow, but I’ve got to make sure they are the right ones and that they’re going to make what we’ve got better. “Otherwise I’m just giving myself unnecessary headaches. If we can bring somebody in who’s going to make the 11 better and give us a little bit of something different, then we’ll do it.“We have tried, we’ve been trying for weeks and it’s not through a lack of support from the chairman and from Joe (Phua).”Maybe they get frustrated with me over my due diligence, shall we say, but recruitment’s something that I’ve always felt I’ve been strong at.”And I think probably one of my strengths on that side is because I am prepared to be patient to make sure we get the right ones.”