The heroics of David Chitty had looked like enforcing Lynn's 10th blank of the Southern Premier Division season.

The Frome keeper made excellent saves to deny Toby Hilliard, David Bridges and Ryan Fryatt during an improved second-half showing from the Linnets as they pushed for a winner. They finally found it in the 81st minute when teenage talent Dylan Edge produced a poacher's finish to end the stalemate between two of the league's lowest-scoring sides.

The substitute, a free-scoring 17-year-old hitman for the club's youth and reserve teams, is seen as a great first-team hope for the future. And he showed why by sweeping home instinctively on the turn from inside the box to make his first, and only, chance of the match count to break Robins hearts. Lynn boss Gary Setchell said of his youngster's third senior goal for his hometown team: 'We had two or three good chances ourselves and you start to think that a draw is probably going to be a fair result.

'Then Dylan pops up with the winner which is brilliant. It's what he does, he just scores goals. He's developing, he's young, and although his all-round game is nowhere near ready for this level of football, if you want a chance to fall to someone, you want it to fall to him.'

Lee Stevenson's burst into the box created the chance for Edge – which he finished confidently. Yet had it not been for some excellent work by Chitty's opposite number Alex Street, and the offside flag which saw Mitchell Page's first-half finish ruled out, the hosts may have been dead and buried long before they snatched all three points.

Setchell added: 'We had to be patient and it was a difficult game.

'To be fair to Frome, I don't think their league position (21st going into the game) reflects where they are, I thought they were very good.

'In the first half my goalkeeper (Alex Street), who has come in for a bit of stick lately, kept us in the game. I think he made two or three crucial saves. I think we just about deserved the win in the end but Frome will probably feel a little bit disappointed they conceded late on.'

Lynn: Street, R Fryatt, Miller, Gaughran, Yong, Bridges, Clunan, Hurst, Stevenson (Castellan, 90+2), Friend (Hilliard, 58), Zielonka (Edge, 71). Subs not used: L Fryatt, Simpson. Booked: Hurst, Hilliard. Goal: Edge (81)

Frome: Chitty, Roberts, Teale, Hobbs, Summers, Nkunga, Davies (Jefferies, 77), Hulbert, Jackson (Sinclair, 61), Page (Monelle, 85), Fitzgibbon. Subs not used: Miller, Jeffries. Booked: Summers. Goal: None.

Referee: D Appleby

Attendance: 376