A burning desire to prove their doubters wrong is bringing the best out of King's Lynn Town.

The Linnets were written off as lower-table cannon fodder by even some of their own fans after a slow start to the campaign – which took a brief pause on Saturday when the club's home clash against Hungerford Town fell foul of a waterlogged pitch.

But Lynn now find themselves well in the hunt for a Southern League Premier Division play-off place with Gary Setchell admitting many of his so-called suspect summer signings have already done enough to answer their critics.

Lynn's boss said: 'Lee Smith (early-season arrival) has done well. There's a lot of players like him, Kern Miller for example.

'He took loads of stick when he signed. 'What's he signed him for? He's had 12 clubs in four years. He's a deadbeat. He's this, he's that'. No-one at this club ever gives your new players a chance. They're always picking and looking for the downside if you like. They'll Google him and say: 'He did this in 2004, he did that'. They don't give them a chance so the only way they get the credit they deserve is by going out on the grass and performing.

'That's what I tell these players: 'You've got to come here, this is a proper football club'. My message to the players in the last three of four games has been: 'This is why you come to King's Lynn, because you want to play in big games'. My message will be the same moving forward: 'Let's keep making the games bigger and bigger and making the season go on longer and longer'.'

Lynn stayed in seventh place in the table despite their inactivity at the weekend. They remain three points outside the top five with 11 matches to go.

Next up is another home clash, weather permitting, against another play-off rival, Dorchester Town, on Saturday.

Setchell added: 'We've got to the position we've got without a 20-goal striker and with losing 13 games because we've got one of the best home records in the league.

'We've won the most games in the league, probably bar Poole, as we don't draw too many and at the end of the day with 11 games to go we're well in the mix. I believe, firmly, that it's in our hands with the fixtures we've got left.

'We've played the top 11/12 away and, no disrespect to anybody, some teams down tools at this time of year – you could have called us one at the end of last season – and we've got some of them teams away from home. But every game here at The Walks is a cup final, an absolute cup final.'