Adam Lakeland wants more of the same grit and determination from his King’s Lynn Town side as they look to keep out of the National League North drop zone this weekend.

A midweek draw at Alfreton Town saw Lynn move out of the bottom four, but only on goal difference from Banbury, who have a trip to Darlington, the team immediately below them – although their hosts will be boosted by a surprise 3-1 win at Curzon Ashton in midweek.

Rushall and Southport are a point ahead of Lynn – they are away to Chorley and at home to Peterborough Sports respectively, so Lakeland knows that if the stars align, his team could make a significant move - if they can beat visitors South Shields.

What he is demanding is a repeat of the character shown at Alfreton when Lynn were pegged back after Cameron Hargreaves’ first-half opener, but kept the hosts out at the other end to bring back a valuable point.

“I thought we were outstanding defensively, absolutely tremendous,” he told the club's official channels. “Commitment, organisation, lads putting their bodies on the line, even right up to the end – Kian (Ronan) making an outstanding block, and I felt we managed to keep a real threatening team to very few clear-cut opportunities.

“I think we've got to be satisfied with the point - we showed a lot of spirit and a lot of character and a lot of grit and togetherness and spirit.”

South Shields are 11th in the table, but just three points off the play-off spots. They beat Lynn 2-0 at the 1st Cloud Arena in October, not long after Lakeland took over as Lynn boss.

“We were very unfortunate when we went up there earlier in the season,” he said. “We should have been 2-0 - missed a penalty and missed a one-on-one and ended up obviously losing the game narrowly.

“But a long time has gone since then. They're obviously under new management. We've made a hell of a lot of progress since we played last time and it's obviously going to be a real difficult game.”

Lakeland has injury doubts over defender Greg Taylor and striker Ben Stephens.