Linnets boss bemoans soft goal against Spennymoor defeat

King’s Lynn Town manager Adam Lakeland was unhappy with the soft goal his side conceded in the 1-0 home defeat to Spennymoor Town.

Will Harris took full advantage of some sloppy Lynn defending to score the only goal in a tight National League North affair at The Walks.

The defeat brought an end to Lynn’s four-game unbeaten run.

“It’s a terrible goal to give away, admitted Lakeland after the final whistle.

“It’s hard enough at this level when you’re giving goals away like that, it doesn’t help your cause and the lads obviously know that you you can’t let the ball bounce, but it has just killed us really.

“They’re fifth and they’re in in that pack of five teams at the top within five points and we were the better team.

“We had three chances there in the first half where we’ve got to score and I think the only other real effort they had have not in the first half was where we made another mistake and Paul Jones has made a great save.

“The second-half felt we we had quite a lot of control really. We had one cleared off the line towards the end but didn’t really create anything of nor ourselves in that second-half.

“Sometimes you’ve got to give the opposition a little bit of credit cause they defended well and they managed the referee incredibly well, which Spennymoor generally do and the referees got to be stronger in terms of time management.”

Lynn’s boss had no sympathy for Jack Smith after he fluffed his lines from two yards out with the goal at his mercy in the first half.

“He’s got to score and applies to any player if they get that opportunity,” said Lakeland.

“At this level of football and how big and organised teams are generally, you’ve got to score and it’s frustrating.

“We had a big chance from Macca (Kyle Callan-McFadden) which he’s got great contact on but it’s just on the wrong side of the post and he’ll be disappointed that he’s not converted that.

“Obviously there was also the quick free-kick with Ben Stevens and Kian’s in and goes through one-on-one.

“He never really looked too comfortable but you’ve got to kill teams in those moments, and that’s three real clear openings that we’ve missed there.”