FA Trophy heartache must not linger, says King’s Lynn Town boss Gary Setchell
Lynn's Jordan Yong is suspended for today's trip to Yorkshire. Picture: Ian Burt - Credit: IAN BURT
Gary Setchell wants his players to use their FA Trophy frustrations as fuel to spark a red-hot league response.
The King's Lynn Town camp were left angry and devastated by a controversial 1-0 home defeat to higher-level Harrogate Town on Saturday which robbed them of a place in the first-round proper. The Linnets have the chance to bounce back at Whitby this afternoon and Setchell is keen for his charges to now ignite a scorching run of form in the Evo-Stik Premier Division.
Lynn's boss said: 'It's been a tough week. We feel like we've had two good opportunities and not taken them in the cup.
'Against Fylde (4-3 defeat in last qualifying round of FA Cup) we couldn't defend properly and it was our own doing. But on Saturday (same stage in Trophy) we felt more than a match for Harrogate but for one reason or another we didn't manage to get ourselves in the draw on Monday. It's been tough to take, two kicks in the teeth if you like.
'We can't feel sorry for ourselves though. Because if we start doing that we could go a number of games, with our run of fixtures, without winning. We've got five very tough games left this year, starting at Whitby where we got battered 4-0 last season so there's no good memories there.
'We need to try and be strong and hopefully get a couple of wins and give ourselves a chance of being in around the top eight to 10, at least in touching distance of the top five, ahead of three home games in a row from FC United (Sunday, December 28).
Left-back Jordan Yong sits out the trip to Yorkshire through suspension as Lynn – 10th and just four points off the play-offs with games in hand on their rivals – take on Whitby, 14th. Powerful centre-back Henry Eze comes back into the squad after completing his three-game ban.
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Whitby have lost their last three league matches and Setchell is keen for his players to take advantage by being more ruthless in front of goal at the Turnbull Ground.
'We've played well against Conference North Fylde, Harrogate and Hednesford, who we beat in the FA Cup,' said Setchell.
'But it's about know-how. Harrogate have got good spending power, they're a very good side, and we were not that far away at all from beating them. In those sort of crucial games you just need to take your chances.
'When we played bottom-of-the-league Belper we needed 15 to 20 opportunities to score one goal. Against Harrogate we got five or six, and failed to score. The referee couldn't have stopped us from scoring. If we'd have found the net first I think it would have been so different.'
Lynn remain the only team in the division to score in every away match - but are one of only two clubs that have not recorded an away clean sheet.
