Linnets suffer Barrett injury blow as they are held to draw at Walks

King’s Lynn Town 1 Blyth Spartans 1

King’s Lynn Town have suffered a major injury blow as they were held to a draw by Blyth Spartans at The Walks.

The home side’s pre-match preparations were dealt a huge setback with the sight of the mercurial Josh Barrett on crutches before the game.

Joint leading scorer Barrett injured his metatarsal in training on Friday and faces a spell of between four and ten weeks on the sidelines.

On the pitch, Ben Stephens ended a nine-week spell without a goal by firing the home side in front early in the second half before Elliot Forbes equalised for the visitors 20 minutes from time.

It was tough on Lynn who had looked solid at the back until one lapse in concentration cost them.

Barrett’s place in the starting line-up was taken by late midweek matchwinner Jack Smith, otherwise, Lynn remained unchanged from Tuesday night.

Ninth-placed Blyth Spartans arrived at the Walks having just recorded one win in their last six outings.

Nicky Deverdics saw an early free-kick played back to him and deflected wide after Josh Coulson had fouled Will McGowan just outside the box.

Lynn fans had to wait 30 minutes for their first shot on target, courtesy of a Ben Stephens free-kick which was comfortably dealt with by Alex Mitchell between the visiting posts.

The hard-working Bartosz Cybulski set up another opening for Kian Ronan as half-time approached but the defender could only sky his effort high and wide of the target.

Lynn opened the scoring seven minutes after the restart after some fine vision from George Morrison saw him cut the ball back for Stephens to fire home his first goal since August 19.

Lynn had looked pretty watertight at the back until 20 minutes from time when Forbes got in front of Kyle McFadden to head home a sumptuous cross from Deverdics.

Cameron Hargreaves forced Mitchell into a save in the latter stages after good work from Stephens down the right.

King’s Lynn Town: P. Jones, Ronan, Coulson, Crowther, McFadden, Clifford, Hargreaves, Morrison, Smith (B. Jones 68), Cybulski, Stephens (Fatjado 90). Subs not used: Oke, Isaacson, Key.

Blyth Spartans: Mitchell, Evans, Clark, Cousin-Dawson, Bodenham, Hickey (Arnison), Forbes, Deverdics (Liddle 65), Oliver, Ndjoli (Knight 77), McGowan. Subs not used: Gordon, Hogan.

Booked: Hickey.

Attendance: 797.