Linnets boss finds winning formula

A change in shape paid dividends as King’s Lynn moved back into the National League North play-off places.Manager Adam Lakeland paired Gold Omotayo and Jonny Margetts up front together for just the fourth time this season for Saturday’s home game against South Shields.And the change in shape did the trick, with two-goal Omotayo and Margetts both on the scoresheet in a 3-1 win at The Walks.Victory saw the Linnets rise a place to seventh in the table and the goalscorers have given Lakeland for thought.“I thought we were excellent,” said Lakeland, after his side put back-to-back defeats behind them. “We had a clear game plan on how we wanted to approach this particular game.“We changed shape, put Gold up there with Jonny, and with him scoring a couple and Jonny getting one, I’m pleased for both of them.“I actually checked before the game and that’s only the fourth game that the pair of them have started (together) and we’ve now won three of those four. “It’s been frustrating for Johnny, for Gold and for me as well because we’ve played much of the season without both of them being available and I think that’s testament to how well we’ve actually done to still be where we are in the league. “There’s been other games where one of them’s been on the bench, predominantly Gold, but getting them both up there, we’ve changed shape which is a system we’ve reverted to at times.”Lynn deservedly took the lead 13 minutes before the break – but there was a huge stroke of luck in the build-up. Josh McCammon appeared to foul David Carson inside the box before playing in Margetts, whose effort was blocked, but the ball trickled its way through to Omotayo who smashed home from three yards out.The lead lasted all of six minutes as Mackenzie Heaney crossed from the left and Robert Biggs rose highest to head emphatically past Paul Jones. But Lynn hit straight back to get their noses in front in the 42nd minute.Heaney left visiting goalkeeper Boney short with his header back and the alert Margetts nipped between the pair and slotted into the empty net.Lynn rubber-stamped the three points two minutes from the end when Omotayo bundled home a third and his second of a productive afternoon. South Shields are a good side when they are allowed to play but the Linnets ensured it wasn’t their type of game.“They’re a very good footballing team,” said Lakeland. “Probably the way the pitch is here at the minute, where it’s a little bit lively, doesn’t help them.“But it was about being competitive, getting up to the ball, trying to force mistakes, which we did for the first and the second goal, and we always felt putting the ball in the box from long throws, set-plays, crosses, that we’d be very dominant.”King’s Lynn visit mid-table Southport this Saturday (3pm).Kyle Callan-McFaddan remains injured but Tommy Hughes is set to return and Cody Johnson could be fit. “It’s never an easy place to go,” said Lakeland.King’s Lynn host title-chasing Brackley on Tuesday (7.45pm).