Bishop's Stortford 0 King's Lynn Town 2

The numbers added up for King’s Lynn Town boss Adam Lakeland even if the performance against Bishop’s Stortford didn’t.

Lynn emerged winners at a side already relegated from National League North to lift themselves up to 16th and eight points clear of the drop zone.

They are now unbeaten in their last nine games, thanks in large part to the form of striker Jonny Margetts, whose first-half opener at Stortford took his tally for the last four games to six goals.

Ben Stephens came off the bench to add a second in time added on, but Lynn – and Lakeland – knew they had been in a game. 

“It was tough - as expected,” he told the club’s official channels. “And I felt we were below par again, to be fair. First half, I thought we were the better team, but didn't really go through the gears enough and play with enough purpose.

“We obviously got the goal but I felt there was probably more there for us if we had just had more quality at times, a bit more urgency and a bit more tempo.

“I thought second half they were the better team. They managed the ball better than us, we struggled to get up the pitch, we struggled to return the ball, and sometimes in games you just sense that it's going to be one of those days where you've just got to be solid and grind the result out and I think the players deserve immense credit for doing that again -another clean sheet, everybody worked the socks off, even though they were suffering in the game.

“Obviously we've had that little bit of quality at the end where the substitutes have combined and Ben's scored the second goal and that's obviously secured the three points for us and it's a massive three points.”

Margetts opened the scoring on 19 minutes before his replacement off the bench, Stephens, who missed the weekend win over Rushall because of an ankle injury, sealed the victory in time added on.

Stortford had  Mark Haines sent off four minutes from the end of normal time after a fracas.

Bishop's Stortford: Giddens, Haines, Akolbire, Kassarate (Foxley 46), Robbins, Beadle, McGregor, Thomas, Charles (Harvey 90), Greene (Lusardi 74), Alexander. Subs not used: Hurley, Messaoudin.

King's Lynn Town: Jones, Barrows, McFadden, Taylor, Coulson, Crowe, Hargreaves, Morrison, Hughes (Rogers 89), Devonport (Cybulski 85), Margetts (Stephens 79). Subs not used: Isaacson, Dixon-Hodge. Goals: Margetts 19, Stephens 90.

Attendance: 392