King's Lynn chief wants to turn up the heat

Paddy Davitt

King's Lynn joint boss Gary Setchell is looking to cash in on cup distractions for their main UCL rivals on Saturday at Peterborough Northern Star.

Title foes Newport Pagnell and St Neots are both on FA Cup duty and Setchell wants the Linnets take full advantage against the newly-promoted Brickies.

“You would be daft to say it doesn't matter, even this early,” he said. “Although the table doesn't mean a great deal, something has to give and if we keep winning games then the pressure goes onto the likes of St Neots, Newport Pagnell and Long Buckby. They've started well and we just need to keep going. I actually know a little bit about PNS because we used to play them pre-season at Wisbech. They have a couple of experienced lads and they will be very, very physical. It seems to be par for the course when these sides play King's Lynn - the physicality rises another 10% or 15%.”

Influential attacker Steve Spriggs is poised for his first league outing since returning to The Walks in the summer. Experienced defensive options Martin McNeil and Danny Buhlemann are both available after missing last weekend's 2-0 win at Desborough but centre back Kyle Plumb is unavailable.

“It's a shame for Kyle because he has done well but we have two lads who can come in,” said Setchell. “Spriggsy is someone we need to give some minutes to. Whether or not he actually starts is something the management will have to decide but I would like to get 30 or 40 minutes into on the pitch with the FA Vase game the following week. Having said that, we have to give PNS total respect first and deal with them. If we approach it in the right manner and do a good job then we can take that confidence and unbeaten run into the Dereham game.”

Setchell hailed Lynn's comfortable win at Desborough as an important early milestone in their season.

“That was a first class performance by us,” he said. “It was like Long Buckby in the sense we had a long distance trip into the unknown, but we showed how much we had learned. That first game might turn out to be a blessing in disguise because the players now know what can happen and that we can't afford to take anything for granted.

“We started well and controlled the game for long periods and I think Alex Street had two saves, at most, to make. It was good for the belief because what we to do is play football, not just knock it long, and we can do that away from home now. We played some fantastic football and someone will get hammered if we maintain those levels and create that amount of chances. I know if we can produce that type of football for 45, 55 or 60 minutes at UCL then it is going to be difficult to stop most weeks.”

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