Too little, too late for King’s Lynn Town at Blyth Spartans

The visitors were already 3-0 down before George Thomson's stunning free-kick and another for Gregg Smith reduced the arrears.

'We have been brought down to earth with a bump,' said Setchell. 'It's been an off day for most of my players and we have had a chat about it just now in the changing rooms. We have missed the likes of Belly (David Bell, injured) and Henry (Eze, suspended), but that's not an excuse. Having said all of that, our last 20 minutes were good and we had chances to snatch a point towards the end.

'But credit to Blyth – they are a good side in a false league position who, in my opinion, will be involved at the other end of the table come April.'

Blyth were out of the blocks quickly and took the lead with the first real chance. Jarrett Rivers' trickery was too much for Jordan Yong on the Linnets left and the winger's centre took a slight deflection, which allowed MaGuire to head past Alex Street.

MaGuire had two more chances to increase the lead at the start of the second half before he was involved in the penalty incident that produced the second goal.

The striker appeared to tangle with Street, falling inside the area, and referee Christopher Ellis pointed towards the spot, although there was no yellow card for the keeper. After the protests died down, the impressive Dale stepped up to double the lead.

Thomson and Steve Spriggs combined to produce a chance for Jake Jones who narrowly failed to connect on the slide. Shaun Stocker and Michael Frew were introduced as Setchell sought to alter his side's fortunes. But minutes after their introduction Rivers capitalised on Ross Watson's slip, firing sharply past Street from the edge of the area.

On 71 minutes Frew was felled on the edge of the Blyth box allowing Thomson to drill home a glorious free-kick – his 19th goal of the season – and Thomson then turned provider for Smith as the bustling striker scored from inside the box.