King's Lynn Town have a mountain to climb if they wish to be involved in the Northern Premier league play-offs following this crushing defeat in Ashton Under Lyne on Saturday.

To add to Manager Gary Setchell's woes central defender Ryan Fryatt was given his marching orders late for a lunge on substitute Matt Chadwick but by then the damage was long done with Jack Higgins, Dale Johnson (two), Martin Pilkington and Matt Kosylo all taking full advantage of generous Linnets defending. David Bell opened his Town account with a classy strike but was guilty of a second half penalty miss which summed up his colleagues' afternoon.

Incredibly Lynn could have been ahead in the first minute as Jake Jones forced home stopper Paul Phillips to save with his legs.

It wasn't long though before Ashton had the lead when Higgins converted whilst on the grass following a scramble from an Ashley Young free kick. The home side were on top but Robert Duffy placed a headed effort wide of the left post from an Andy Hall centre. Bell was robbed of the ball in the opposition half and two passes later his side were two down as Johnson turned Fryatt inside out before producing a curled finish past Timms. On the stroke of the half time whistle Bell appeared to hand the Linnets a way back into the game with an angled finish from just inside the box after he had waltzed around three players to create the chance. This would probably have changed Setchell's interval talk but Ashton were to rewrite his script again with Pilkington bringing down another long ball before calmly slotting the ball into the net to re store his teams two goal advantage.

The second spell started in the worst possible way for the visitors with Kosylo walking the ball past Timms despite looking well off side in the build up which led to the goal.

On a rare visit to the opposition box Dan Quigley was hauled to the ground which gave Bell the chance to reduce the arrears again. However, his spot kick lacked conviction allowing Phillips to make a diving save.

Five minutes later Johnson compounded King's Lynn's misery, condemning them to their biggest league defeat of the season, with another clinical finish from inside the area. Fryatt's late dismissal made no difference to the final outcome but his absence for three matches will hurt his team who will miss one of its most consistent performers.