King's Lynn boss Tommy Taylor is desperate to avoid history repeating itself when his patched-up side entertain Southern League, Premier Division bottom club Cheshunt today.

King's Lynn boss Tommy Taylor is desperate to avoid history repeating itself when his patched-up side entertain Southern League, Premier Division bottom club Cheshunt today.

Lynn's pre-Christmas ten-match unbeaten run looks a distant memory following back-to-back away defeats which leave Taylor's men still searching for their first point of the New Year.

The Linnets' miserable four-point haul from a possible 18 last January put the skids under a belated playoff push.

Taylor's determination to cement a top five spot this time around is not helped by a flu virus sweeping through the club on top of a growing injury list.

Top scorer Danny Bloomfield (flu) is the latest doubt for the Ambers' visit as Lynn bid to stop the rot.

"Danny is very unlikely to play," confirmed Taylor. "He will give it a go in the warm up and we'll see how he feels, but you know he's the type of lad who wants to turn out. We only had four fit players at training on Tuesday.

"In my mind I have a team picked, but I'll give everyone until the last minute. If you took three or four players out of any side it's bound to affect things.

"We fielded the same side for more or less 12 matches and when you do that players are happy and everyone knows what they are doing."

For the record: Taylor is confident Jack Defty (virus) will be fit after training on Thursday. Defenders Dean West (hamstring) and Grant Cooper (gashed head) are expected to play. Mark Camm (back and groin) is rated only '50:50' by the Linnets chief who makes a late decision on Cedric Anselin (groin). Sam McMahon has shaken off the flu bug that kept him out of last weekend's defeat at Yate - but the midfielder is suspended.

Taylor denies his side's confidence has taken a serious knock after shipping seven goals in their last two outings.

"You don't become a bad team overnight," he said. "We've had two bad games, but that comes after ten very good ones - and in six of those we kept clean sheets. We've missed Coops a little at the back with his experience and calming influence.

"Scoring hasn't been a problem, if you score twice away from home you don't expect to lose. We have let poor goals in early on by giving the ball away and getting stretched which puts you on the back foot."

League leaders Salisbury moved five points clear with a 1-0 win at Cheshunt in midweek, but Taylor is not prepared to wave the white flag yet.

"We've only just reached the half way point," he said. "At this stage people might think they are over the hill. I still believe anything can happen because they haven't really played too many of the top clubs.

"It's vital we pick up three points this afternoon, particularly with our run over the next few weeks when we go to some of the teams around us in the table. We will give Cheshunt plenty of respect. It doesn't matter to me whether they are top or bottom."

King's Lynn (from): Benstead, West, Jones, Smith, Cooper, McMahon, Camm, Defty, Carey, Anselin, Hammond, Bloomfield, Nolan, O'Halloran, Heath-Preston, Peters, Fell, Harvey.