King's Lynn joint boss Gary Setchell questioned his side's mental toughness after losing ground in the UCL Premier Division title race.

Town spurned a host of gilt-edged chances to add to Jamie Thurlbourne's 12th minute opener and were punished when Matty Gearing's long-range strike deceived Alex Street.

Leaders St Neots were trailing at the break at St Ives but struck a winner in the sixth minute of stoppage time to open a three-point gap on the Linnets.

'Very, very frustrating,' said Setchell. 'The heads are on the floor at the minute and St Neots have had a great result. They are a good side but we have to keep going. We have to try and get to 100 points and hope they don't get that many. The level of performance compared with recent weeks was so, so different. We can't get through enough to the players that leagues are not won at places like St Neots. Leagues are lost at these type of places and we have dropped too many points away from home. I'm not sure we are mentally strong enough.

'We have a young squad and with the euphoria of last Saturday and a big crowd we can't adapt our performances to these type of games. That is criminal because we knocked St Neots down on Saturday and tonight we have just picked them up and dusted them down again.'

Town bombarded the Cogenhoe goal after the interval but Danny Buhlemann's close-range stoppage time header which crashed against the bar summed up their luck.

'We've had six or seven great chances but don't forget Pedro had to make a couple of top saves,' said Setchell. 'No disrespect to Cogenhoe, but we should be putting away teams like this.'

Town have fresh injury and illness worries ahead of this weekend's FA Vase return. St Neots hat-trick hero Steve Spriggs missed last night with a stomach bug while defender Jamie Alsop pulled out during the warm-up after testing a leg injury suffered at the weekend.

'He got a knock on Saturday, thought he was alright but broke down in the warm-up,' said Setchell. 'Ross Watson is struggling. Hopefully they'll all be okay but we've given them Thursday night off because there is no point in flogging them.

'We've got 16 league games left and we have St Neots at home but we will have tougher away trips than this.'

• Cogenhoe: Dorrill, Thompson, Herbert (Blackwood 86), Ainge, Ling, Gotch, Gearing (Lukeman 81), Leslie, Bates, Taylor, Casey (Hewitt 73). Subs (not used): Tuck, McGowan.

• King's Lynn: Street, Bexfield, Buhlemann, L Thurlbourne, McNeil, Watson, Doherty, White, Defty, Harris (Bacon 67), J Thurlbourne.

Subs (not used): Fryatt, Hails.

• Referee: M Gospel (Daventry)

• Attendance: 143