Paddy Davitt King's Lynn boss Keith Webb warns his men must shed their soft centre to spring an FA Cup surprise against Blue Square Premier promotion-chasing Kidderminster this weekend.

Paddy Davitt

King's Lynn boss Keith Webb warns his men must shed their soft centre to spring an FA Cup surprise against Blue Square Premier promotion-chasing Kidderminster this weekend.

Webb praised Lynn's spirited second half fight back in the midweek 2-1 home defeat to high-flying Tamworth after the Lambs had bossed the first period.

The Linnets' chief wants his underdogs to carry that fresh belief into Saturday's fourth qualifying round tie at The Walks.

"I hope the second half performance does give the players confidence," he said. "They showed they could compete and create chances. I don't think it was a disservice to say we did enough to get something out of the game because right through the team there weren't too many bad performances. We just have to tighten up defensively. That was one of our bedrocks earlier in the season but we've conceded six goals in two games now. You can't keep going down that road - going into games knowing you have to score twice to win because you might concede at the other end."

Webb praised his side's collective character after Tamworth had raced into a two goal lead to pile on the agony following the club's weekend mauling against Farsley Celtic.

"When it went 2-0 you think, 'hello, here we go again after Saturday.' Heads could've gone down," he said. "I didn't think we started too badly. Scott Mitchell ran through and their keeper made an excellent save. At half-time we asked them to get closer to the lads in the middle of the park. Their movement was fantastic. They had that understanding which comes from training three times a week.

"Credit to Gary Mills and Darron Gee. Tamworth are a good side who will be there or thereabouts. They are flying at the minute."

Webb defended his decision to delay introducing twin attacking threats Joe Francis and Julian Joachim until the final stages.

"It was a difficult one," he said. "We had players on the bench that gave me the option to change it earlier but the team was doing well in the second half. I wanted to give them every opportunity because no one can deny that we were taking the game to Tamworth. Julian and Joe both came on and made an impact. People can say why didn't we make those changes earlier but if we had switched to 4-4-2 Tamworth would've murdered us."

Webb also took issue with Andrew Fisk's straight red in stoppage time. The midfielder is now poised to land a three-game ban for violent conduct next month after tangling with ex Nottingham Forest defender Des Lyttle.

"I think the referee has reacted to the reaction of their player," said Webb. "I don't believe it was a red card. For me, he hasn't even caught him. Des Lyttle is too experienced to get hurt by that sort of tackle. I just feel the reaction of their players didn't help the situation."

Midfielder Scott Mitchell was withdrawn with a slight groin problem but defender Ben Chapman came through unscathed on his return after a seven-match lay-off.

"To be fair we had to rush him back sooner than I would've wanted," said Webb. "But he's a little battler and he was up against a very decent player with plenty of pace. I looked at the boy Nick Wright in the summer but for one reason or another it didn't happen but considering how long Chappers had been out I thought he adapted well."