Kings Lynn leave it late to salvage a point.

I visited King’s Lynn FC on Saturday on the way home from a holiday.

The ground is not far off the centre of town and could be reached from there mainly through a leafy park. I struggled to park near the ground as next to it was a local fun day which had drawn other cars. The stadium is bounded on two sides by a park, one side by houses and a main road on the other.

The bright sunshine made the colours of the trees, grass and sky look vibrant on the summers day with the temperature at 24 degrees. There was little wind , what there was helped to bring in the sound of the fun fare that blared away as a background tune to the game. The grass pitch was immaculate and had a slight slope from end to end.

Attending many lower level games I fully appreciated their value for money as here I was charged £18.50 for a concession entrance, £5 for chips and a coffee and £3.50 for a programme. It seemed a lot as it is some way to the Premier League and if a family of four were attending it would have been close to a £100 cost including travel.

There has been organised football played in Kings Lynn for over 150 years and there is a mention of a Lynn Town in 1879 which lasted a few seasons until Lynn FC were formed in 1881 keeping that name until it was changed to Kings Lynn in 1953. Playing locally initially they were founder members of the Eastern Counties League where they stayed until 1958 apart from a two season move to the United Counties League. A short four year stay in the Midland league saw them elevated to the Southern League and a year later promotion to the Premier Division. During the 1960’s Kings Lynn had good success in the FA Cup and defeated Football League teams. A move to the Northern Premier League in 1980 was a stepping stone to the Conference North but were demoted for ground grading issues the season before their financial problems and demise.

The current club, Kings Lynn Town were formed in 2010 being admitted to the Premier Division of the United Counties League form which they gained promotion to the Northern Premier league Division One South after two years. In their first season in that league they were champions and promoted to the Premier Division. The team were then moved laterally into the Southern League which they won in 2019 to be where they are today in the National League North. Quite a journey in such a short time.

There has been a football team in Gloucester since 1883 with the City tag first appearing in 1902. That team folded in 1910 and at the same time a team called Gloucester YMCA was formed who 15 years later adopted the Gloucester City name that is used today. The club played local football in Gloucester, Bristol and Birmingham but in 1939 gained entry to the Southern League in which they stayed for 70 years. A promotion by the play-offs was secured in 2009 to the Conference/National league North where they have stayed except for one season when they were moved to the National League South due to boundary changes. More recently (2007) they had to vacate their home due to floods and lead a nomadic life until they were restored into a brand new home at the old address.

Kings Lynn Town FC 1 Gloucester City FC 1

Saturday 19th August 2023, 15.00 pm kick off.

Vanarama National League North.

The Linnets v The Tigers. 19th v 22nd

The Walks Stadium, Tennyson Road, Kings Lynn, PE30 5PB

The notes that I made about the first half of this game were, 1st 15 minutes dull, 2nd 15 minutes dull, 3rd 15 minutes dull. I should really have asked for my money back and driven home. The whole half was played down the centre of the pitch with each team cancelling out the other. If anything Gloucester just shaded the first half.

Kings Lynn made two changes at half time and the introduction of Joshua Barrett made an immediate difference. He’s energy, tactical awareness and accurate long passes upped the tempo of the game and created a shooting chance early on.

It was Gloucester though who took the lead on 72 minutes when the dangerous Danny Wright beat the home defence to flash a ball in from the right to be met by Elliot Durrell who made no mistake when he lashed it into the net. Gloucester did not initially fall back and kept attacking but Kings Lynn applied more and more pressure. When the board was raised to say 8 minutes of added time I expected them to see it out but right at the death two shots on goal were blocked but not cleared and at the third attempt Ben Stephens found space amongst a crowd of players to riffle the ball past the Gloucester goalkeeper to salvage (steal) a point.

So by the end it was the away side that felt they had lost two points rather than gain one on the road, the Tigers couldn’t eat the Linnets. Kings Lynn have now played 4 league games this season only picking up 3 points from 3 draws while Gloucester only have two points from their 2 draws. It looks like a long hard battle for these two teams this season.

The Chips were hot, crispy on the outside but very floury in the middle. A good portion but they left a taste afterwards of the oil that they had been cooked in. A score of 64.