Adam Marriott is a scoring machine who, in two seasons at King’s Lynn Town has been promoted twice. Next up is the National League challenge. Chris Lakey reports -
Strikers tend not to talk about personal scoring targets - at least not until they’ve reached their own expectations.
Adam Marriott is no different – but remarkably it was as far back as the end of November when he reached the 20-goal mark he had set himself.
The only goal of the game against Gateshead at The Walks came early into the run which saw Lynn top National League North over the winter months.
Eight more goals followed in the remaining 13 games until the coronavirus pandemic took a grip on the world and brought a premature end to the season.
“Goals wise I was probably going to be happy with 20 to be fair,” said the 29-year-old, with the sort of calm approach to the question that he usually has in front of goal. No messing about, just straight into the answer.
“I’ve played a level higher, but I hadn’t had a go at this level, so I didn’t really know what to expect, but I always back myself to score goals – I have done throughout my career.
“But to get 28 with 10 games left ... that surprised me a little bit. You just have to keep working hard and I knew the goals would come.”
Marriott cracked in nine goals in six games in November as Lynn finally wrestled control of the division after threatening for long periods. Only an opening defeat at Guiseley and a 3-0 reverse at York in September blotted their copybook. But that good early form was to prove crucial given the late wobble before football was put on hold.
Now, the challenge is on to stay in the National League – and Marriott’s decision to remain at Lynn could well be crucial. But it was a big decision.
“Not just for me, for my family as well – I am pretty settled where I am at the minute,” he said. “It is something I had to weigh up. I love this club. I didn’t really want to leave if I am honest. It was just working out if an offer came in I couldn’t refuse and if it was a chance I couldn’t turn down I probably would have gone, if I’m being honest, but that didn’t happen for whatever reason and I am delighted to be a King’s Lynn player again.”
Promotion clearly helped.
“I didn’t fancy Conference North again to be honest,” said with a laugh. “That was a long slog. There are a few more closer to home this year in the Conference Prem and I can’t wait to get going. I just want to give it a good go and see what we can do.”
Proof of what Lynn can do against the odds came when they were crowned champions, albeit on a points per game basis. For Marriott, Golden Boot winner and the league’s top player of the season winner, there were never many doubts.
“Not for me - I don’t know about the rest of the boys. But on our day we are as good as anyone and especially at The Walks, we give anyone a good game.
“We knew it was going to be tough but if you don’t believe you can achieve something you probably won’t do it, so I think once we got the wins quite early it gave everyone quite a bit of confidence and we carried that on through the season and we got the job done.
“The boys gave it everything – from minute one of the first game it was a tough, tough league and to be fair I think we deserved it overall. It is testament to the boys’ hard work and dedication. We have sacrificed quite a lot during the season and we’re delighted to get over the line.”
‘The boys’ is a phrase that pops up regularly; manager Ian Culverhouse is a firm believer in the group he has assembled and has been at pains to keep the core group together for next season. For Marriott, the bond between players extends over the white line to the crowd’s support.
“We (the players) obviously bonded straight away,” he said. “I have been here two years now and we are such a close knit group and we are obviously buzzing to have done it – two promotions in two seasons is hard to come by and we will go into this new season full of confidence and hopefully we can surprise a few next year.
“It has been brilliant since I walked through the door, it couldn’t have gone much better. To win back to back promotions and to get the club where they should be – hopefully we will make the fans proud.
“It is really, really exciting, something to look forward to.
“There are some big grounds and hopefully they come in numbers and travel away with us and when we play at The Walks hopefully it will be a full house, when it can be. You know, they are massive to us. They get us over the line – they helped us on many occasions this year and hopefully they can do the same next year.”
Another 20 goals would help as well....
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