Leamington 2 King's Lynn Town 1

Adam Lakeland blasted his team’s sloppiness as they exited the FA Trophy at the first hurdle.

The Linnets were behind inside the opening minute and then conceded a second after just eight minutes. The returning Josh Hmami pulled one back with 10 minutes of normal time remaining, but it was too little, too late for Lynn.

It was their fourth defeat on the bounce after three losses in National League North – and each time they have conceded the opening goal of the game.

“We started like an absolute shambles,” Lakeland told official club channels. “That's cost us the game and our position in the competition.

“I think the first goal is the worst goal that I've ever seen conceded by one of my teams, and I’ve managed nearly 400 games now in men’s football.

“The first goal’s a joke. We may as well have kicked off 1-0 down, that's how poor that goal was.

“But then to go and concede a second one - so soft. You're just giving yourself a mountain to climb, and that's where we are at the moment.

“It's easy to play the game when you’re 2-0 down and the players kept going until the end, worked hard right to the death, scored a really good goal. But you can't give teams soft goals and certainly two-goal head starts. And at this moment in time, that's exactly what they're doing.

“For many of the goals we've conceded in this little run of gam we’ve only got either ourselves or the officials to blame.

“Their manager, Paul, said to me after the game that we were the better team for the last 75 minutes. That's no cancellation when you concede two crap goals. So we’re out and we've only got ourselves to blame for that.”

Leamington: Hawkins, Meredith, Quaynor, Doyle-Charles (Rowe 77), Streete, Evans, Landers, Walker, Stewart, Edwards, Shorrock. Subs not used: Berridge, Ward, Lynn, Humphries. Goals:  Stewart 1, Edwards 8.

King’s Lynn Town: Jones, Crowe (McFadden 59), Coulson, Wilson, Taylor, Johnson, McCammon, Hmami (Williams 90, Barnes, Crane, Margetts. Subs not used: Whiteley, Hughes, Boyes. Goal: Hmami 80.