The Walks

King’s Lynn Town 0-1 Guiseley AFC

A Bizarre 24 hours!

Friday 13^th March will be a day every football fan will remember, the dramatic news that all senior level football was being suspended initially until early April due to the escalating Coronavirus.

On Saturday 14^th, I was due to be at Vicarage Road for Leicester City’s away game at Watford while the chirpy Canary, Stewart Gillion, was going to the game between Norwich City and Southampton.

With both games off and nowhere to go we decided to hit non-league to see King’s Lynn Town v Guiseley. Although it must be said the Vanarama League maybe operating for the last time.

At this point nobody is sure on whether we will see any further football this season or not.

A victory for the Linnets would have taken them to the top of National North but after two successive defeats the locals were apprehensive.

It was certainly a game with plenty of incident and noticeable how physical it was compared to the upper echelons of the game.

Lynn should have opened the scoring but the top scorer Adam Marriott saw his shot blocked by the Guiseley keepers left leg.

The visitors had already given us a clue of their ability with one or two nice interchanges in the final third and their quicker thinking got them a goal. A poor defensive header a hesitant goalkeeper was seized open and an excellent finish from Kaine Felix. 0-1.

The referee had already made, shall we say, some interesting decisions but the strangest came just before half time. King’s Lynn’s Chris Henderson burst over the halfway line with the ball and as he shaped to shoot appeared to be fouled by McNally the Guiseley defender. The ball did break free but to no advantage. Instead of issuing a red card and giving Lynn a penalty the ref booked Henderson for simulation and gave the visitors a free kick. It was a decision which nobody could believe.

The second half was better for King’s Lynn however this didn’t stop their Yorkshire opponents from clipping the cross bar and then being denied a second goal by goalkeeper Alex Street.

All the Lynn chances were falling to Marriott who seems to have run out of luck, every effort being just wide, Rory McAuley heading over.

The King’s Lynn Town manager is former Norwich City defender Ian Culverhouse and it seemed they improved when he changed the sides shape, reverting to 4-4-2 from 3-5-2 .Despite this improvement though the equaliser did not come though and at the final whistle frustration from the crowd of 1,432 and the Lynn players. It had been a real physical contest at times and the referee did not have a good game. 9 players had already been booked and following the final whistle there was a straight red handed out to a King’s Lynn unused substitute for foul and abusive language.

A game with plenty of incident in Norfolk’s second biggest town.

Final score, King’s Lynn Town 0-1 Guiseley AFC.

So a week which saw me see Leicester City beat Aston Villa in the Premier League finishes with a game in the 6^th tier in West Norfolk.

Not exactly what I had in mind.

The question now is does the 2019/2020 reconvene in April or is that it?

And if this is it for the season what happens to relegation and promotion? These are decisions with a high financial bearing on many club’s futures and whatever decision is reached someone will not be happy.

These are troubled times for everyone inside and outside of sport, let’s hope this health issue moves on as quickly as it appeared.

The Walks

Friday, June 12, 2020

King's Lynn Town 0-1 Guiseley AFC