A serious leg injury to King's Lynn Town's Ryan Hawkins overshadowed their 1-1 draw at a wintry Corinium Stadium.

The youngster was stretchered from the pitch early in the second half with what was initially suspected to be a broken leg.

An air ambulance forced a second stoppage, but was not needed and the youngster was taken by ambulance to Cheltenham hospital for treatment on a deep gash to his shin being before transferred to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

While that was happening, Linnets assistant boss Lee Stevenson was bemoaning his team's failure to collect all three points.

'We have let ourselves down again today with a lack of firepower up front,' he said.

'We also started slowly. It's something we have talked about at length and it's something that we have tried to put right, but unfortunately for us it's happened again today.

'In some games we seem to have to go a goal behind before we start playing – maybe we should start every game a goal behind.'

Stevenson was involved in the game's most contentious issue when, with the scores level, his diving header was ruled out for offside – a decision that baffled most people within the ground.

'It's a perfectly legitimate goal,' he said. 'I'm two, three yards onside. It's an unbelievable decision, a real game-changer. Had the goal stood we would have been ahead, the momentum was with us and we would have been confident of going on to win.'

Lynn's slow start was punished as early as the 15th minute when Gethin Jones nodded home from a corner as keeper Alex Street appeared to lose the flight of the ball. Alan Griffin could have doubled the advantage with Lynn grateful to skipper Sam Gaughran who blocked the goalbound effort.

Town weathered the storm and levelled just before the half hour with a classic counter-attacking goal with Michael Clunan and Sam Warburton releasing the in-form Shaun McWilliams who deliciously lobbed Glyn Garner from 10 yards to square things up.

Lynn: Street, Zielonka, Fryatt (Smith 77), Gaughran, Ward, Quigley, Clunan (Hilliard 82), McWilliams, Hawkins (Revan 58), Warburton. Unused sub: Yong. Ref: P Staynings. Att: 110

Cirencester Town 1 King's Lynn Town 1