King's Lynn Town v Buxton in NL North - match preview

A week after a late, late defeat at Curzon Ashton, Lynn return to the bread and butter of league football, with Buxton the visitors on Saturday.

The Bucks are 18th in the table and have lost all three of their away games while Lynn are seventh, just four points off top spot. It’s a congested upper end of the division, so while a win could see Lynn right in the mix at the top, a defeat could, equally, see them drop a few places – all depending on other results.

From the manager’s perspective, the only memory from the Curzon game should be that if his former club is to be used as a yardstick, Lynn are getting better. Even if the cup exit was disappointing.

“Of course it hurts, and it should do, because we want to win games,” he told BBC Radio Norfolk.

“Any game we lose it hurts us, but we can't afford to have a hangover. We’ve had a good start to the league and we’ve positioned ourselves quite nicely after the first 10 games. We’ve got a home game next Saturday and we have just got to dust ourselves down and turn our thoughts and attention back to that and then we look forward in a few weeks’ time to the FA Trophy starting."

Buxton’s visit is a reminder of Lakeland’s recent first anniversary as manager at The Walks – the Derbyshire side were his first opponents back on October 7, when a goal by Cameron Hargreaves was the only thing they had to show for their efforts after a 3-1 home defeat.

Gone - Cameron Hargreaves, who scored against Buxton last season (Image: Ian Burt) The fact Hargreaves scored is another reminder of how things have changed. Of the match day squad that day, only four players - Paul Jones, Kian Ronan, Josh Coulson, and Kyle McFadden – remain. All are defenders, which perhaps illustrates where Lakeland believed Lynn’s biggest problems to be – although it was perhaps no surprise when Hargreaves and fellow midfielder Josh Barrett eventually ended up with former boss Tommy Widdrington at Aldershot.

Others, like Adam Crowther and, more recently, Bartoz Cybulski – went for good money; some – Tom Clifford, Manny Oke, Sion Spence, Ben Stephens and Jack Smith – were perhaps not up to the level; Jordan Ponticelli’s injury woes and maintenance costs caught up with him once his contract ended; Ethan Sutcliffe was a short-term loan and Quaine Bartley’s season-long loan ended when he was effectively sacked for going AWOL.

Gone - Manny Oke (Image: Ian Burt) Each player from that game, wherever they are, has a bit of Lakeland’s footballing DNA in them as he sought to clear the decks and then bring in better quality replacements. Think, among others, Jonny Margetts, Josh Hmami, Josh McCammon, Fin Barnes, Ross Crane, Dylan Crowe, Cody Johnson, Gold Omotayo, Freddie Sass, Greg Taylor, Sam Walker, Theo Williams and Tom Wilson.

Adam Lakeland ahead of his first match in charge a year ago, with Lynn owner Stephen Cleeve (Image: Ian Burt)

Lakeland's assertion is that Lynn are getting closer to the best teams in the division - beating Buxton would be equally rewarding in his transformation at The Walks.