Frustrated King’s Lynn Town manager Adam Lakeland is looking for an immediate reaction at Scarborough on Tuesday night after his side crashed out of the FA Trophy at lower league Stourbridge on Saturday.
The Linnets missed three gilt-edged chances during their 2-1 defeat in the West Midlands but Lakeland was under no illusions that they deserved anything from the game and is looking for much more in the National League North clash in North Yorkshire.
“Tuesday is a massive game and I expect better. It’s an even bigger game than the Stourbridge one and it will be tough again. It’s a difficult place to go and it’s on an artificial pitch.
“They’re not too far ahead of us in the league now compared to a few weeks ago, which shows you how far we have come in recent weeks and I expect a reaction now.
“We are a team that is continuing to improve. The Trophy defeat was obviously a bump in the road and I’m incredibly disappointed to go out of this competition but we will dust ourselves down, work hard, prepare right and go to Scarborough ready to put an improved performance in.”
On the Trophy exit, Lakeland added: “I’m incredibly disappointed as we went there wanting to progress and we cannot have any complaints about losing so that is so frustrating.
“I’ve been to that ground a couple of times in the past and it’s a difficult place where you have to be ready to fight, battle and compete and they did that much better than us right across the pitch. We were just not at the level required. Unfortunately today, too many players in our starting line up were not at it.”
Having said that, the manager thought the goals conceded were unlucky and believed Lynn should have had three of their own.
“The first goal was a deflection and the second goal would not be given by 99% of referees. Their lad has stepped across our keeper trying to take a quick goal kick and the referee has allowed him to do it.
“Poor refereeing certainly didn’t help us as when you go 2-0 down it is incredibly difficult – but that’s not the reason why we lost the game.
“Poor as we were, we also had some massive chances and the keeper has made three top saves. In the first half Kian (Ronan) tried to dink the keeper when one-on-one and he has to score, he should have pushed it down the side of him.
“The other one-on-one at the end with Bart (Cybulski), he’s got to score, but the keeper has made a massive save. And then there was the save to his top left from Ish’s (Ismael Fatadjo) header. We had to capitalise on those chances and we didn’t.
“The frustration for me is that inconsistency drives me up the wall. I can deal with losing games if we’re giving our best, but today we weren’t and that’s what stings me and I am sure it will sting the players as well.
“We are quite young. You take Jonah (Paul Jones), Macca (Kyle Callan-McFadden), JC (Josh Coulson), Cammy (Cameron Hargreaves) and Ben (Stephens) out of that and we have a young side, but coming to places like Stourbridge in Cup football is incredibly difficult and we didn’t do enough.”
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