Gary Setchell is certain FC United's agonising wait to escape the Evo-Stik Premier Division is nearing its conclusion.

The King's Lynn Town boss reserved huge praise for the big-name opponents who beat his side 2-1 at The Walks yesterday. The victory lifted the Reds to seventh, with games in hand on most of their rivals, and kept up a hot streak of just one defeat in nine league matches.

And Lynn's manager remains sure that after four painful bouts of play-off heartbreak in a row, FC will go one better this term and finally reach the promised land of the Conference set-up.

Setchell said: 'It's a tight league. I love the league. The fans should enjoy the league, because it's a good league. Our home form has been decent, we've won eight and lost four.

'We don't always play pretty stuff but more often than not we give 110pc and today was no different. But the long and the short of it is we ran into what I think is the best team in the league.

'Obviously people will have their opinions about that but for me, watch this space, because I think they'll go on to win the league.'

Strikes in either half from Thomas Greaves and Lewis Lacy helped United – backed by a large and noisy away contingent – take control of a game they only really failed to dominate territorially on a couple of brief occasions.

One of those came after the break at 1-0 when Gregg Smith missed a glorious opportunity by heading a Jackson Ramm cross wide at the far post. It was another of the game's key moments that went against the Linnets.

'The better side won if I'm being honest,' said Setchell, who looks set to lose winger Jake Jones for a couple of weaks after he suffered a suspected torn hamstring just before the half-time whistle blew.

'I think the referee made a poor decision (in the build up for the first goal). Their lad jumped straight into (Ryan) Fryatt. It's one of them you get and sometimes you don't. I think 0-0 would have been fair at half-time.

'Gregg had an opportunity in the second half that you'd expect him to probably score, he'd expect to score, and he missed. Then five minutes later we conceded from a set piece where we've just gone to sleep.'