King's Lynn Town boss Gary Setchell admits dropping Steve Spriggs helped fire up his top goalscorer to produce the goods against Market Drayton on Saturday.

The Linnets boss benched his winger for the midweek visit to Romulus, but reinstated him to the starting line-up for the home clash against the Shropshire strugglers.

And the 24-year-old responded by bagging a second-half brace to help inspire Lynn to a 3-0 win which moved them up to second in Evo-Stik Division One South.

'What he needed was to be dropped at Romulus and sulk for a couple of days and come in on Saturday and show us all what he can do – which is what he done,' said Setchell.

'He didn't want to be dropped. It's hard when your top goalscorer isn't performing, and you leave him out. But we trained reasonably hard on Thursday, went for something to eat, and I talked to him. And on Saturday he was back to his best.'

Spriggs – who left Lynn to join Boston United earlier this term but returned after just one game with the Pilgrims – has scored 23 times this season. Sam Mulready also found the net for the first time since his move to The Walks became a permanent one as the Linnets kept up their outstanding form to make it eight league wins from eight in 2013.

All of the goals came in the second half and Setchell believes his troops' fitness levels will continue to be a key factor, saying: 'We have to play on that pitch week in week out and it's sapping. It's why we've won a lot of games. Our fitness levels are very, very high and we train very, very hard. We've run a lot of teams – not just at our level – into the ground late on. It's not a fluke that we win games in the second half. It isn't a coincidence that we always score late on. It's because we're very fit and keep going.'

Setchell will be looking for more of the same on Wednesday night when Lynn look to keep up the pressure on league leaders Coalville Town by picking up points at Carlton.

- Click on the related link to read a match report, and see a picture gallery, from Saturday's game.