Linnets boss has sympathy for relegated hosts

King’s Lynn Town manager Adam Lakeland has every sympathy for relegated Farsley Celtic as he takes his side to his former club on Saturday.Lynn’s boss spent four-and-a-half years in charge of Farsley and guided the club to promotion to the National League North back in 2018/19.He still holds fond memories of his time at the West Yorkshire Club and knows there is no room for complacency from his players as they try to force their way back into the play-off places.Lakeland said: “We’ll just approach every game and respect every opponent the same as we have done all season and as we always will do.”If we go to Farsley next week thinking it’s a certain three points, then we’ll lose, so it’s about mentality and preparing correctly, which we’ll do.”Hopefully, the players will perform, and we can go up there and get a win because we do need to go up there and win, but it isn’t going to be easy.”Now they’ve been relegated, I’ve got two thoughts on that. One, they may be playing now with a little bit less pressure, so that could heighten the performance levels of some of their players and, secondly, as the manager that won them the Northern Premier League to get them into the National League North, I’m sad and disappointed to see the suffering that they’re having at that club. “The supporters, they’ve been suffering all season. Some good people there and good friends of mine have been treated poorly. “There’s still some good people left at the football club, so to see them get relegated, it is disappointing, and hopefully they’ll be back in this division soon.”With The Celts not having a home ground, the club have been forced to the majority of their home fixtures on the 4G surface at Buxton’s Silverlands Stadium.”Two weeks ago, we went there, performed well and got a really important win,” said Lakeland. “Look, the pitch here is difficult to play on, and that’s not a criticism to Ben (Hails) at all because he’s top draw, and it wouldn’t have been anything like it is now had we not had his hard work throughout the season.”But most pitches, or a lot of pitches at the minute, they are bare and dry, and that makes it difficult to play on. “Going to Buxton where we know it’s artificial and you can trust the surface, then hopefully that will help us be better and more fluid in our play, but it still doesn’t guarantee us anything.”We’ve got to go and execute and try to win.”It remains very tight in the battle for the National League North play-off places, with just four points separating Chorley in fifth and Buxton in tenth, with Lynn sitting a point off the final berth in eighth.