King's Lynn Town 0 Curzon Ashton 2
Adam Lakeland bemoaned the ‘moments’ that went against his side and led to another frustrating afternoon at The Walks.
Goals in each half meant the National League North points went back to Curzon, again, but it was a game which slipped out of Lynn’s grasp when striker Jonny Margetts was injured during arguably their best attacking move of a game in which they failed to draw a save out of the opposition keeper.
Josh Hmami had left Curzon defenders scattered in his wake as he weaved his way down the right before putting in a low cross that the visitors managed to keep away from goal. Margetts' attempts to intervene ended in a one-on-one with an immovable object, the goalpost, and, despite trying to carry on, was forced off on 35 minutes with a back injury.
Three minutes later Lynn conceded, in somewhat bizarre circumstances, with Kyle McFadden penalised for obstruction in the area, although quite what he was supposed to do as he lay on the ball, surrounded by players and with no way of extracting himself, is anyone’s guess. The referee’s guess was an indirect free-kick, which was tapped to Stefan Mols who fired the ball into the bottom right-hand corner.
Two big moments inside of three minutes.
And from then on Lynn struggled to create anything for Margetts’ replacement, Gold Omotayo who, despite being hard to miss, hardly had a decent cross to attack.
Lakeland now faces a wait before he knows the extent of Margetts' injury.
"He's wasn't in a great way at half-time to be honest," said Lakeland. "We'll just have to see how he is in the next 24, 48 hours.
"You talk about final third and ruthlessness, he's as sharp and as good as there is and I think we missed him when he went off because I thought he started he game pretty well for us. So hopefully it's nothing too serious, but we'll have to see how he how he settles down."
Curzon’s second was the product of great skill by Isaac Buckley-Ricketts who made space for himself on the left, before curling a right-footer past Paul Jones – completely avoidable because, as Lakeland pointed out, it was in the players’ homework. Another ‘moment’ … to forget
“Another frustrating day for us here,” said Lakeland. “They say goals change games, but I think the first goal massively changed the game to be honest. I thought they started better than us. First 10 minutes they got in a couple of times too easily, but then I felt we settled into the game, grew into the game and I felt we were the better team, to be honest, up until half-time.
“But the goal … I don't know what the referee expects Kyle McFadden to do there. He’s on the ground, there's three or four bodies around him, a coupe, of theirs, a couple of ours, trying to get the ball. I genuinely don't know what he expects him to do
“And obviously the first goal in any game is massive because it just allowed them, second half, to manage the flow of the game, the clock, and they did it incredibly well. They slowed it down when they could, they stayed on the ball and retained possession when they could. And they played on the break against us, which they are probably one of the best in the league at doing.”
Lakeland left Curzon for Lynn last autumn, and in January suffered an humiliating 4-0 home defeat to his former club. This time it was easier to swallow, but having lost to Peterborough Sports at The Walks on Bank Holiday Monday, there will be concern at the loss of six points on their home patch.
“I don't think we've played poorly again, but we've got nothing and that's something we have to think about,” said Lakeland.
“But I just said to the players there, because they're naturally very disappointed, that the last time we played them here, January 23, we were well, well beaten and we were miles behind. And they are a team that got to the play-offs and should have progressed beyond Chorley because they were the better team and they didn't do. But we've given them a right game today and that's with a group we've put together within three, four months, so we're going in the right direction, but we've got to learn quickly from the last couple of home games.”
King’s Lynn Town: Jones, Ronan, Sass, McFadden, Taylor (Wilson 88), Johnson (Hughes 80), Hmami, McCammon, Crane, Barnes, Margetts (Omotayo 35). Subs not used: Boyes, Walker.
Curzon Ashton: Jones, Poscha, Matthews, Griffiths, Buckley-Ricketts (Mahon 72), Sinclair (Darby 90), Spencer (Waring 90), Mols (Afuye 88), Hayhurst, Richards (Sonowale 90), Barton.
Goals: Mols 38, Buckley-Ricketts 66
Att: 1,131
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