Gary Setchell saluted his battle weary warriors after they were outgunned by Kettering's late onslaught.

Patched-up King's Lynn Town put in a heroic shift without a number of key men and deservedly took a one-goal lead into the break thanks to Dylan Edge's instinctive half volley. Yet the Poppies turned up the heat as the Linnets ran out of steam and ended their run of back-to-back defeats thanks to two goals in 12 minutes.

First, Brett Solkhon headed home to bring the sides level and with the hosts rocking, Wilson Carvalho's tap-in with about 10 minutes left secured a much-needed triumph for the slow-starting Southern League Premier Division title favourites.

'You can't be disrespectful to any of our lads because they're giving the club, the town – local lads – 110pc,' said Lynn boss Setchell.

'But when you look at their bench and they can bring on (Nathan) Hicks who has played League football, Spencer Weir-Daley is prolific and he can't even get in their team, then you know you're up against a superpower of the Southern Premier League.

'The changes did affect the game. They signed Kaid Mohamed, he was with Eastleigh last season. We haven't got that spending power at the minute, or the location – bang on the A14. They've got a great squad and when they get it right they'll beat teams regularly, and well.

'If you put that into the mix, what our boys achieved is they took one of the best teams in our league, for me, for 60 minutes and made it an absolutely one-sided game. For the last half-an-hour they absolutely murdered us because we got tired.'

Sam Gaughran (hamstring), Toby Hilliard (ankle) and player-coach Gary Mills played through the pain as the Linnets tried to build on their hard-fought 3-1 weekend win at Frome without injured quartet Leon Mettam, Shaun McWilliams, Liam and Ryan Fryatt.

Mills, 35, was exceptional until he was replaced by young Eoin McQuaid – who showed plenty of promise on his first-team league debut.

'Was that a turning point? Millsy barely got out of the dressing room at half time. He was dead,' said Setchell.

'I didn't want to take him off but when he's getting cramp in both of his thighs you haven't got too much choice. I thought he was absolutely tremendous. We had players not play with knocks and niggles which is disappointing really. We had one or two who really showed some steel, some guts if you like, and put their bodies on the line for the club, for me, their team-mates and the town.

'You've got to credit Sam, Toby and Millsy who have all played while not right and maybe we could have had one or two more.'

Click here to read a match report from yesterday's game.