King's Lynn Town boss Gary Setchell admitted captain Richard Bunting's season was over after watching his side slip to a narrow 1-0 defeat on Saturday.

The central midfielder hasn't featured for the Linnets since March 19 after further damaging the on-going groin problem he has played on with throughout the season.

It was hoped Lynn's skipper would be able to play some part of his team's title run-in. However, he broke down in the warm-up at Halesowen Town to leave his manager declaring Bunting has lost his battle to play again this campaign.

Setchell said of his player, who was replaced on the substitutes' bench by Charlie Butt: 'He's done now. That's him done for the season, which is a massive blow, and he'll probably go and get his operation done now.

'He was advised to have it, but he wanted to give himself every chance of playing a part for the rest of the season – and we all wish he was playing his part for the rest of the season. We've got to deal with that.

'He's bitterly disappointed because he's had a fantastic first season for the football club. In games like Saturday and the Stamford game we really do miss his presence in there. He's been excellent and he'll be back next season.'

Bunting, one of three summer signings from Long Buckby, has impressed in a holding role for Lynn this term making 38 appearances and scoring one goal. The news of his set-back came on a bad – but not disastrous day – for The Walks club in their quest to win Evo-Stik Division One South.

Setchell's high-fliers lost their second game in three against the sixth-placed Yeltz while league leaders Coalville Town continued their poor form with a 2-2 draw at home to Market Drayton.

'If we'd have got a point, I half expected Coalville to get a win, so we'd have been two points adrift and everybody would have been happy,' said the Lynn boss.

'We're one point adrift now and everybody's unhappy. Whenever you lose, you do think differently. I thought generally in the first half we were on top.

'Going in at half-time I thought the game was well within us. We came out and panicked a little bit, playing into the wind, but we didn't have the cutting edge in the final third that we're accustomed too.

'They threw their bodies on the line and blocked shots late on and they saw it out. We've had a lot of those sort of wins ourselves so we can't grumble. It's still in our hands.'

Lynn and Coalville have five games left to decide the destiny of the title. The league's top two meet in a mouth-watering title-decider of sorts in Leicestershire tomorrow night.

- To read a match report from Saturday's game, click on the related link on the right-hand side of this page.