First Team - Match center

Stamford AFC
Kings Lynn Town
D O'Hare (64')
Full time
A Jones (21'), N Stewart (10'), S Carey (59'), A Marriott (75'), J Taylor (89')
Sat 13 Jul 15:00 - Friendly Attendance 234

Manager Upbeat Despite Defeat

By

Upbeat Stamford manager Graham Drury feels his side's tough start to pre-season will provide the perfect preparation for their upcoming tests.

The Daniels went down to a 5-1 home defeat against National League North newcomers King's Lynn at the Zeeco Stadium on Saturday.

The reversal means Stamford have shipped 11 goals in their opening two friendlies after a 6-0 home loss to League One side Peterborough United on Wednesday night.

But Drury insists the daunting double whammy of fixtures have served their purpose for his new-look squad.

Kings Lynn Town - 13th July 2019
23 photos

He said: "I obviously didn't want to concede 11 goals in the two games, but you can see we are very individual at the minute.

"There isn't a lot of patterns of play and I was a bit disappointed that we didn't keep the ball better. I thought we did that better in the first half against Peterborough than we did all game on Saturday.

"But these games are the ones when you see your characters. I thought in the second half that we injected a bit through James Hicks and Cosmos Mathwasa, Matt Dawson and Louis Danque gave us more width and Cleveland Taylor gave us some leadership.

"We know where we have got to be and it's now about getting it put together and tidying it up.

"These two games were all about pure fitness and making some money for the club. We've had nearly 2,000 people for the last two games so we haven't done bad financially out of it.

"Lynn are a class side. They've got good experience and some quality players and again I appreciate them coming down and I did want it to be a little bit tighter than that.

"But we have got to start building now. We can't be too downbeat. The idea was always about pure fitness.

"I'd rather have a pre-season of learning than one of just drifting through and thinking we've got world beaters and we're going to win the league.

"I'd rather have these tougher games and identify who is your leaders and who can stand up and be counted.

"We've got to look at positives rather than negatives so there is certainly little pictures coming in my mind and that's what pre-season games are about.

"That's why we're doing three games in a week. We want all different levels - Football League, National League North and United Counties League Division One.

"We then start playing teams who are going to be somewhere in and around us and, if you lose by the odd goal or if it's tight or if you're nicking a draw or pinching a win, it can give you a big lift as a unit.

"There's been purpose to all of the games that I've chosen, but now we've got to start thinking about winning ways."

Stamford had to borrow Lynn goalkeeper Charlie Congreve from the visitors for the clash with both Dan Haystead and Dan Swan unavailable while plans to borrow Peterborough United's Will Blackmore were scuppered after he suffered an injury in training on Friday afternoon.

Congreve was beaten after just 11 minutes of the contest when Jordan Richards' cross to the back post was cushioned down by the head of Michael Gash for Nathan Stewart to sweep home the opening goal.

Stamford twice threatened to equalise with Liam Adams curling an effort narrowly wide while Gash produced a fine tackle to deny Ollie Brown-Hill after he had broken clear following Tom Siddons' flick-on.

The Linnets then doubled their lead midway through the first half when Congreve fumbled as he slid out to collect a through ball and Stewart teed up Aaron Jones to tap home.

Lynn came close to a third as Gash's header from a Nathan Fox cross rattled the crossbar with Congreve beaten.

The Linnets custodian did well though to deny his team-mates from increasing their lead further ahead of the half-time break.

Stewart was denied his second goal by a fine fingertip save from Congreve who then excelled with a superb reaction save to palm a goalbound Gash header over the crossbar from the resultant corner.

Stamford came close to halving the deficit on the stroke of half-time as Jon Challinor burst clear of the chasing Lynn defence only to poke his shot narrowly wide of the advancing trialist goalkeeper in the Linnets goal.

Both sides rang the changes after the break with Lynn increasing their lead after 57 minutes when marque summer signing Sonny Carey smashed home a fine strike.

Stamford pulled a goal back shortly after as Mathwasa produced a superb dashing run to set up Hicks who played in ex-Lincoln City youngster Dec O'Hare to open the Daniels' account for pre-season.

Congreve then produced another top-drawer stop to turn away a fierce strike from Adam Marriott, but he was powerless to prevent the former Cambridge United and Lincoln City striker from heading home a Ross Barrows cross for Lynn's fourth after 74 minutes.

The visitors wrapped up the scoring with three minutes remaining as one of their five trialists on show sealed their success.

Stamford are next in action on Tuesday night when visit Harrowby United.

The match will be played for the Pete Down Cup in memory of the FA Vase winner with Stamford who was also a steward at Harrowby.

Key moments

10:00
Goal Nathan Stewart scores for Kings Lynn Town
21:00
Goal Aaron Jones scores for Kings Lynn Town
59:00
Goal Sonny Carey scores for Kings Lynn Town
64:00
Goal Dec O'Hare scores for Stamford AFC
75:00
Goal Adam Marriott scores for Kings Lynn Town
89:00
Goal Joe Taylor scores for Kings Lynn Town

Videos and photos

Kings Lynn Town - 13th July 2019
23 photos

Highlights

View 0 new events
89:00 Goal 1 - 5
Joe Taylor scores for Kings Lynn Town
75:00 Goal 1 - 4
Adam Marriott scores for Kings Lynn Town
64:00 Goal 1 - 3
Dec O'Hare scores for Stamford AFC
59:00 Goal 0 - 3
Sonny Carey scores for Kings Lynn Town
End of period 1
21:00 Goal 0 - 2
Aaron Jones scores for Kings Lynn Town
10:00 Goal 0 - 1
Nathan Stewart scores for Kings Lynn Town
Start of the game
Replay game

As it happened

  • Stamford AFC
  • Kings Lynn Town
  • 0
  • Nathan Stewart Goal 10:00'
  • Aaron Jones Goal 21:00'
  • Sonny Carey Goal 59:00'
  • Dec O'Hare Goal 64:00'
  • Adam Marriott Goal 75:00'
  • Joe Taylor Goal 89:00'

Team selection

Trialist, A Trialist, A
Wright, Sean Wright, Sean
Ward, Charlie Ward, Charlie
Armstrong, Michael Armstrong, Michael
Trialist, B Trialist, B
Brown-Hill, Ollie Brown-Hill, Ollie
Hill, Sam Hill, Sam
Challinor, Jon Challinor, Jon
Siddons, Tom Siddons, Tom
Adams, Liam Adams, Liam
Vince, Harry Vince, Harry
Stamford AFC
Kings Lynn Town
  • 1. A Trialist
  • 2. Aaron Jones
  • 3. Nathan Fox
  • 4. Ryan Fryatt
  • 5. B Trialist
  • 6. C Trialist
  • 7. Michael Clunan
  • 8. Jordan Richards
  • 9. Michael Gash
  • 10. Nathan Stewart
  • 11. Chris Henderson
  • 12. Ross Barrows
  • 13. D Trialist
  • 14. Rory McCauley
  • 15. E Trialist
  • 16. Ryan Jarvis
  • 17. Sonny Carey
  • 18. Rudland
  • 19. Sam Kelly
  • 20. Adam Marriott
  • 21. F Trialist
  • 22. Gilbert
  • 23. Joe Taylor

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