King's Lynn 1-1 Rugby Town

Southern League Premier Division

Tuesday, 16th August 2005

King's Lynn Website

Attendance | 889

Rugby Town gained a superb point away at promotion hopefuls King's Lynn with a late Rory Squire goal just two minutes from time.

The goal rounded off a battling performance by the Valley at the intimidating Walks Stadium in front of an attendance of 889.

Manager Billy Jeffrey named the same starting eleven from the weekend, with Robbie Maddox employed this time at right wing-back from the off and Stuart Smeathers moving inside to a central midfield role.  King's Lynn started strongly and with Jack Defty and Danny Bloomfield both looking dangerous up front for them, ex-Linnets keeper Stevie Wilson had to be alert in the Rugby goal against his old team mates throughout the first half.

The pressure finally told on 38 minutes when King's Lynn broke quickly after striker Kevin Slinn had been robbed of possession near the halfway line, and Cedric Anselin managed to get in behind the Town defence and pull back a cross which found Defty, who scrambled his header into the net despite the efforts of Maddox who nearly completed a desperate goal line clearance.

With the large crowd now fully behind them, the home side threw everything at Rugby, and were unlucky not to extend their lead just four minutes later when a Bloomfield chip bounced back off the crossbar.

The introduction of striker David Stone for Slinn in the second half saw a change in the balance of play, and King's Lynn early dominance slowly started to diminish.  The Town's central defensive trio of Robert Gould, Delroy Gordon and Andy Peaks impressively managed to deal with any remaining threat from the opposition's front line, and Jeffrey's side began to show more composure and ability on the ball.

This new-found confidence was rewarded on 87 minutes when a Matt Green long throw was helped on by James Rowe, and Squire was first to the ball and saw his goalbound effort deflected by a defender past John Higgs to bring things level at 1-1.

There was still time for both teams to nearly grab a last gasp winner.  A jinking individual run from Linnets' Robbie Harris, which saw him pass three Town defenders, was cut short by a fine saving tackle from Valley sub Simeon Williams, and nearly on the final whistle Chris Tullin volleyed just wide of the post for Rugby.

Manager Jeffrey was proud of his players' commitment and performance.  He said, "We fought like tigers out there tonight.  King's Lynn are a quality side, and there'll be a lot of teams who come here this season and get nothing.  The ball was flying around everywhere in the first half, but despite the goal we didn't drop our heads in the second and managed to battle our way back into the game, and could have even sneaked it at the end."