Darlington 1 King's Lynn Town 0
Adam Lakeland was left frustrated as King’s Lynn Town dropped points in their National League North play-off chase.
The Linnets boss was without young on-loan midfielder Cody Johnson – a player he believes is being over-worked after recalls by parent club Stockport – and criticised leading scorer Jonny Margetts over trying to win a penalty rather than going for goal.
“A frustrating game,” he told the club’s official channels after an early Kallum Griffiths goal earned the hosts all three points.
“Frustrated with how we played. Obviously it's a brilliant strike by their lad, five minutes in - it's not a great way to start any game and against a team like them who are organised and experienced and don’t concede many goals. They were able to sit in and hit us on the break, which they did countless times, more in the second half than the first.
“We had a lot of possession, a lot of play, but we were really wasteful, really sloppy, didn't create anywhere near enough.”
Lakeland said Lynn were denied a spot-kick, but then questioned Margetts’ decision-making over another incident.
“I thought we should have had a stonewall penalty first half on Margetts,” he said. “But he didn't get anything all game. Disappointed that he went down so soft in the second half when he's through on goal. Shoot - don't go over. I thought the referee made the right decision on the second one, but got it wrong on the first one.
“The lads tried hard, they worked hard, they kept pushing, but we just didn't work their goalkeeper enough. Obviously we hit the crossbar, Greg Taylor, was the closest we came to scoring. And they obviously posed that threat on the break right throughout that second half and if we're being completely honest, we were fortunate that it was only one in the end because probably some poor finishing and some good goalkeeping and some excellent last-ditch defending kept it to1-0.
“Then we just became a little bit ragged than when we were chasing the game.”
Lynn are sixth in the table and have another difficult trip on Tuesday when they go to Kidderminster, who are two places and two points below them with two games in hand.
Darlington: Jameson, Hedley, Barrow, Platt, Lees, Cornish (Hetherington 84), Hatfield, Main, Griffiths, Kelly (Flint 72), Bakre (Maskell 80). Subs not used: Nelson, Stirland. Goal: Griffiths 6.
King’s Lynn Town: Jones, Crowe, Wilson, Taylor, Armstrong, Walker, Hmami, Hughes (Omotayo 62), Crane (Forde-Brown 66), Barnes (McCammon 66), Margetts. Subs not used: Ronan, Sass.
Attendance: 1,481
