Paddy Davitt King's Lynn's hometown keeper Danny Gay insists a newly-reformed club should go back to its roots.The 27-year-old was the only senior player not to look for a move away from The Walks following a mass exodus of Lynn's Unibond Premier Division squad ahead of officially being wound up last week.

Paddy Davitt

King's Lynn's hometown keeper Danny Gay insists a newly-reformed club should go back to its roots.

The 27-year-old was the only senior player not to look for a move away from The Walks following a mass exodus of Lynn's Unibond Premier Division squad ahead of officially being wound up last week.

Council chiefs revealed in the EDP on Friday four potential interested parties have already come forward with a view to launching a successor to the 130-year-old Norfolk outfit.

Gay believes the local community should be at the heart of any reformed club which could be set for a string of Ridgeons League derbies next season.

“Maybe it needs a player/manager or someone who can get the local talent and attract it to the club,” he said. “Get the likes of Charlie and Jack Defty back. Those type of players could be the spine of your team and give it that experience but with good young players from the area also getting an opportunity. I'm not sure going for instant success is the best plan.

“It's by no means guaranteed they would be in the Ridgeons anyway but for these teams turning up here it will be like playing at Wembley. Whoever takes it on they certainly wouldn't get 800 to watch Ridgeons football.

“I know Buster (Chapman) is a shrewd businessman and you only have to look at how he has built up the speedway track from nothing to one of the best in the country but I also hope the supporters can do something or they have a voice.

“Whoever comes in needs to understand the tradition - yet also realise this is a new club. It's not the one that went to Everton in the FA Cup in front of 44,000 or had 5,000 for the Oldham tie game a few years ago.”

Gay is adamant the town's football team should never again be allowed to die.

“The bottom line is that whoever comes in now has to learn the lesson that you bring your dirty washing out in public and share it with people,” he said. “At least give people a chance to help - that is the reason this football club has gone down. If the board didn't have the money and the resources why didn't they come out and say that?

“Did the people in charge really want that club to go back up the leagues? That is my question because going up meant more financial issues in terms of paying bigger wages to attract better players. I know if I had been on that board I would have done everything I could to make it work because it means so much to so many.

“We're not talking about the 100 or so at Frickley and Retford and these places. If we had still been up there at the top after Christmas we'd have had 1,200 or 1,400 watching home games. There was a buzz around the whole place and supporters were so excited.”

Gay backed former manager Carl Heggs' claim they could have lifted the Unibond Premier title this season.

“I'd heard a lot about the league but having seen the standard of football it was very huff and puff,” he said. “I think the gaffer had two or three additions in mind and we would have gone very close to winning that. You only have to look at the results in the last three weeks when we haven't played with Boston getting beaten by Matlock and so on.

“It was a winnable league, without a shadow of a doubt, and we had the foundations there with the coaching staff, manager and players to do very well. Take the last game we played against Salford in the FA Trophy. On that day we didn't play well at all but we won and they say that is the sign of a good side.”

Gay's immediate priority is sorting out his own short term future.

“I'd had five or six phone calls within a day of the club folding,” he said. “They're all at a decent level but for me I have to consider the travelling side of things and whether I just want to get something for the four or five months of this season then look at it again in the summer.

“I'm based here and I do some coaching as well so that is a factor I have to take into consideration but being on the lookout for a club in the run up to Christmas is not great.

“It's a joke a team the size of King's Lynn and a town of this proportion can just disappear. I don't feel sorry for the players, the manager or the chairman. I feel sorry for all the volunteers and supporters. They put their heart and soul into it and for certain people to rip the heart out of the football club is sad.”