Gary Setchell admitted the Linnets' shortcomings were too clear for all to see once again during a 10th home league defeat of the season.

For 85 minutes yesterday Lynn displayed a defensive solidarity not seen at The Walks since January 3 – the last time the club kept a clean sheet in Norfolk.

However, despite the best efforts of centre-back Ross Watson and stand-in left-back Jake Jones especially, that spirited effort was made to count for little when Town's soft centre was brutally breached for the 73rd time in 43 Evo-Stik Premier Division matches.

Daniel Gaunt's ball split the home rearguard which encouraged keeper Alex Street to race off his line. Jamie Towers stabbed the ball past him and beat Watson and Ryan Fryatt in a foot race to get to the loose ball first before prodding it agonisingly into a vacant net.

Setchell, who was quick to suggest he thought the goalscorer was onside when played in, said: 'With 15 minutes to go it's a 0-0 game and there wasn't a lot in it.

'I felt we were the more likely probably. Yet we give possession away. There's one straight ball, my goalkeeper comes running out, and that summed our season up in a nutshell in the last five minutes. It's disappointing.

'It wasn't a great footballing spectacle but there was a lot of honest endeavour out there from both teams. A 0-0 would have probably been a fair result. We're disappointed because we've lost a home game, again, and didn't deserve to lose.'

Lynn's defeat, the eighth match on their own turf without a win, heaped more misery on a team that have suffered a rotten slump in form this year. They have won just four of their 20 matches in 2015 with three of those coming away. That record is in stark contrast to an opening half of a campaign which saw the Linnets flying high in the table despite an inability to win on the road. The issue has been addressed but it's now at The Walks where the 14th-placed outfit's woes are being heightened.

'The pitch is digusting to try and play football on,' moaned a frustrated Setchell. 'For both teams. But we tried to play, got in some good areas in the final third and our final ball was terrible. Whether that's the pitch or the players (who knows?). It's the same for them but they were a little more direct than us so it perhaps suited them a little bit more.

'It's very, very difficult. Lee Stevenson, the ball bobbles up around his knees when he's one-on-one, the same for Peter Winn.

'I said to Alex (about the goal): 'On this surface, make the lad beat you. He's got to have a couple of touches and then put it away. It's not easy on this. It would have been difficult for him. We made it easy for him. We were too square, the lad made a good run, it was a good ball, but we've gifted it to him really.'

Click here to see a match report, and gallery of Matthew Usher's pictures, from yesterday's game.