King’s Lynn Town’s historic opening game of the season is to be shown live on TV.
The Linnets play Yeovil at The Walks on October 3 with a new kick-off time of 5.20pm.
“The club has waited a long time to appear on live TV and it is fantastic that BT has chosen us as their curtain-raiser,” said owner Stephen Cleeve.
“It will be fantastic to have them here and fantastic to have fans enjoy this historic moment.
“I think it is great for the management and players that they will have a world-wide audience for their efforts.”
Following governments restrictions of social gatherings this week, there remains doubt over attendances at National League games, but Cleeve says he is confident that come October the situation will have changed.
The safety point has been brought home to Lynn this week – BT’s announcement came 24 hours after the club was forced to call off a number of games because of a coronavirus scare.
It meant the scheduled home game against Braintree Town on Saturday afternoon was immediately canned. Players and staff will be tested and it is hoped the home friendly against Kettering Town next Saturday will go ahead.
In a statement released on Thursday evening, the club said: “Today the football club was informed by a member of its staff that a member of his family has tested positive for coronavirus (Covid-19).
“Following consultations and discussions between the National League’s Covid officer, and both King’s Lynn Town’s Covid and medical officers, the decision has been taken to postpone the first team’s fixture with Braintree Town, the Under 21s Thurlow Nunn Division One North game at Needham Market Reserves (both tomorrow) and Lynn Ladies ERWFL match at Histon, scheduled for Sunday.
“The Under 12s and Under 16s fixtures in the Junior Premier League (JPL) will both still be played with the former playing Peterborough Sports at the West Lynn Community Centre pitch and the latter travelling to Holland FC. Both games will kick off at 10.30am.
“Everyone at the football sends its best wishes for a speedy recovery to the person involved. The club will be making no further comment on this matter for the time being.”
FA Cup
Dereham Town are one of a number of local teams opening their FA Cup campaign on Saturday.
The Magpies host Whitton United, from the Thurlow Nunn Premier, in a preliminary round game (3pm) – and manager Adam Gusterson is eager to get their competitive season off to a good start.
“I’m excited, as we all are,” Gusterson said.
“It has been a long time away from competitive football and we have all been looking forward to its return. The key for us is to be excited but to manage that with the job in hand and that will be the message for the lads before the game.”
Dereham have won tree, drawn two and lost one of their pre-season fixtures .
“We’ve had a good lead time with the extended break to ensure we are fit,” added the manager. “We had time working in enforced small groups, but again we felt this was beneficial and enabled us to concentrate on some key areas more specifically with players which was helpful and not something that you always get the chance to do.
“In terms of the pre-season fixtures I feel they have gone well and we have got lots out of them. I do feel we have built momentum nicely into the competitive season starting again and hopefully that will be reflective with our performance Saturday.
“Our objective has been to try and improve ourselves when in possession. This has been the focus of training and we want to be able to build attacks better from deeper areas. This takes time and a lot of practice along with the right personnel. We want to work with the current group so getting them comfortable with this has been our focus and we are have seen huge improvement in this area of our play. It gives us a different dimension which at times last season we possibly lacked.
“The current situation and uncertainty hasn’t effected anything – we’ve been working to this start date and everything has turned out so far to be in line with those preparations.”
There is a capacity of 400 at Aldiss Park – it’s first come, first served and they don’t want any stragglers. Gates open at noon and, importantly, close at 2.45pm.
Best of the rest
Wroxham have a Norfolk derby at home to Gorleston, while Thetford host Potton United and Diss are away to Stamford.
In the Thurlow Nunn Premier, Norwich United host Woodbridge Town, Kirkley & Pakefield will look to make it three wins out of three when they go to Stanway Rovers and Swaffham Town are at home to Hadleigh United.
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