King’s Lynn Town 4 Luton Town XI 0
Pre-season results are open to any sort of interpretation – if they’re bad it doesn’t matter, if they’re good, then the omens for the season ahead are good.
Only it rarely works out that way.
How you interpret Lynn’s final two pre-season games – the draw with Northampton last week and Saturday’s 4-0 win over a young Luton Town XI – matters little. Saturdays at 5pm is when it matters; when Adam Lakeland will know if the hard work of the summer has paid off, whether he has brought in the right players, whether they are gelling, whether they are capable of reviving Lynn’s fortunes after last season’s struggles.
On Monday they will be firing paintballs at each other in a bonding session when Lakeland will be hoping they remain free of any injury – which is the one definite he can take from the nine games of summer.
Other inquiries about pre-season’s effect on the season proper are gently batted away – although the health report was skewed a little by minor knocks to Kyle McFadden and Bart Cybulski.
“It was a solid performance, clean sheet, looked a threat, scored plenty of goals and the most important thing is we came through it unscathed so it’s a clean bill of health now going into the last week,” said the Lynn boss.
“You want to come through pre-season without injuries. We've done well in the main. Outside of JC (Josh Coulson) having a little bit of an issue, Dylan (Crowe) having a little bit of an issue and. Tom (Wilson), in the main we've been ok.”
Sod’s law intervened somewhat when McFadden went off as a precaution midway through the first half, giving Josh Coulson more playing minutes than anticipated, but no real harm was done.
Lakeland said: “You always want to come through pre-season unscathed and bar one or two little bits and pieces as I mentioned we've done pretty well to avoid it and it gives us lots of dilemmas now getting ready for next week.”
Those dilemmas will be who to leave out, although Gold Omotayo’s hat-trick and Cybulski’s goal lessen the damage caused by the absence of Jonny Margetts, who misses the first two league games after his red card in last season’s final game.
That attacking threat reflected a Lynn performance that carried none of the fears of last season’s battle for survival relegation, replaced by a confidence and panache created by the manager’s summer rebuild - Lynn were aggressive, controlled, arrogant at times, and dangerous.
They had two goals disallowed inside the opening 20 minutes for fouls on the trialist keeper – both after perfect corners from the excellent Josh Hmami.
Both flag kicks proved to be pointers of a kind, with Hmami then delivering a cross from open play deep on the right which was food and drink for Omotayo, who headed home.
Two minutes later it was Ross Crane’s turn and he chipped in a ball from the right which Cybulski half volleyed home from six yards.
Crane’s run and cross down the right deserved better from Omotayo who headed across the six-yard box and past the far post.
Crane was at it again as half-time loomed, a run and shot foiled by the keeper, who then stopped Hmami’s follow-up.
Josh McMammon almost took advantage of poor defensive work by the visitors but his shot was deflected just wide.
Lynn made it 3-0 two minutes into the second half, Omotayo sweeping home emphatically after a low cross from the left by Freddie Sass.
The keeper then twice denied Hamami a goal he deserved, while sub Margetts flashed one just wide of the left post.
Omotayo got his hat-trick on 76 minutes and immediately went to celebrate with the creator, young Finn Whiteley, who had defied physics to get his cross in from the right.
King's Lynn Town: Jones (Boyes 76), Ronan, Sass, McFadden (Coulson 27), Taylor (Isaacson 72), Hmami, Hughes (Margetts 62), Omotayo, McCammon, Crane (Whitely72), Cybulski (Crowe 46).
Goals: Omotayo 23, 47, 76 Cybulski 25
Luton: Trialist, Paternoster, Benagr, Kayibanda, Odell-Bature, Chigozie, Giwa, Martins, Lynch, Lorentzen-Jones, Anderson. Subs: Blackledge, Trustram, Odegah, Fox
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