Worksop 1 King's Lynn Town 1

The ups and downs of football were encompassed in the dying embers of a game that should have been put to bed much earlier.

Josh Hmami’s 27th-minute strike – his first since his arrival in the summer- looked to be enough to see Lynn through. They weathered a few Worksop storms, but Lynn’s backline stood firm and protected keeper Paul Jones who, until that final few seconds, had had just one real save to make.

Enter Lynn’s assistant manager, midfielder Sam Walker, who had hardly put a foot wrong all afternoon. In his desperation to prevent a grandstand home finish he committed a foul on the edge of the area. He looked to the skies. He knew the danger. But still he came out of the defensive wall and blocked the free kick. But then the ball spun right to Luke Hall, who smashed it into the top left corner with the last kick of the game. The home fans jumped for joy, some a little too excited for disappointed visitors.

Football in 60 seconds.

“To be fair, I think there's a great deal of fortune,” said Lynn boss Adam Lakeland, who celebrated a year in charge at The Walks on Sunday.

“Sam has come straight into the changing room and said he shouldn't commit the foul. He didn't really put a foot wrong all game and he's gone to win the ball honestly as he does, and he's just mistimed it. He's then got up and blocked the initial free-kick. I think if the lad hits it cleanly it's blocked but he slices it and it just loops into the top corner.

“I think it's a lot of fortune, the goal itself, but when you come to places like this, with the way that they're going in the league, a team full of confidence, scoring lots of goals, big physical presences in open play and from set-plays, you've got to defend resolutely, and I thought we did.

“Defensively, in the main, we have been incredibly solid and I thought we were so, so close and worthy of another clean sheet that would have got us through but they've had that little bit of fortune at the end and we've not been ruthless in front of goal when our one-on-one chances have come and that's the reason why we've got to play again.”

The one-on-ones fell to midfielder Josh McCammon who fluffed his lines twice before being denied by a fine save by the keeper.

“It feels like you've been knocked out when you concede so late, but if we're being honest we should have been three or four up,” said Lakeland. “We should have been out of sight.

“I think pretty much most of those opportunities landed to Josh (McCammon) and I thought he was outstanding today, his overall performance, and he certainly deserved at least one goal, but he just didn't really have that luck in front of goal that he needed today and that has kept them in the game because I think for the amount of pressure, like balls they put up and around our 18-yard box and we had to contest a lot of first balls, land on a lot of second balls, stop crosses coming in, defend crosses when they did come in, set plays - I can't remember Jonah (Paul Jones) making a save. I think he made one down to his left in the first half, but that was it.

“I thought we defended resolutely - against the good side, let's have it right. They lost their opening game here to Macclesfield and they've been absolutely flying since then. They are probably one of the strongest teams at Step 3 and we knew that it would be really difficult. But I thought we almost executed what we wanted to do to perfection and had we been a little bit more clinical then we go through comfortably on the scoreline, even though the game itself was very, very difficult.

“But we're still in the draw and we go again on Tuesday The Walks.”

While Lakeland gave a debut off the bench to Friday signing from Fleetwood, Theo Williams, there will be concerns over Kyle McFadden’s availability for Tuesday's replay (7.45pm) after he limped off after just 13 minutes with a knee injury.

Worksop: Malkowski, Hutchinson (Atherton 86), Wilde, Starchenko, Bencherif, Shiels, Hawkridge, Redford (Hughes 66), Burrow, Bramall, Hall. Subs not used: Taylor, Tomlinson, O’Malley, Wedgbury. Goal: Hall 90

King’s Lynn Town: Jones, Sass, McFadden (Wilson 13), Taylor, Crowe, McCammon (Ronan 90), Walker, Johnson, Hmami (Coulson 90), Barnes (Crane 79), Omotayo (Williams 79). Subs not used: Hughes, Crane, Boyes. Goal: Hmami 27

Attendance: 759