King's Lynn Town 3 Marine 1

Adam Lakeland has funding available to strengthen his King's Lynn Town squad – but says he won’t waste it.

The King’s Lynn Town boss missed out on Warrington striker Connor Woods last week and went into Saturday’s game against Marine without injured strikers Jonny Margetts and Gold Omotayo.

Goals from midfielders Tommy Hughes, Ross Crane and Josh Hmami saw Lynn overcome a stubborn Marine side and move back to second in National League North – but Lakeland is poised to add some extra punch as Lynn prepare for a promotion battle royale in the coming months.

Injuries have restricted Margetts and Omotayo to just 27 games between them this season, for a combined 13 goals – if Lynn are to be in the thick of it come the end of April, Lakeland will need fit and well options.

“We've been speaking quite a lot myself, the chairman and (investor) Joe (Phua),” said Lakeland. “They've said that there's the opportunity there for us, if we want to add we can do.

“And that's what we'll try to do, but we won't rush into anything either because I think it’s testament to the hard work we put in over the summer and the recruitment that we've done that we haven't brought a single player in this season, which is madness, really, madness.

“That shows that the lads that we've got, we trust and they're growing as a group and as a team, that we believe in the players that we've got, but also that it is hard for us to find players that are better than some of the ones we've got as well.

“We've only had probably one little period where we've been really light on numbers and it was no surprise that within that period we lost games to the likes of Chorley, Leamington, in the FA Trophy, and South Shields.

“So I'm pleased with what we've got. I will bring one, maybe two, in if I can get the right ones that I think will come in and improve us and help us and just give us a little bit of freshness around the place. But right now I'm really pleased with what we've got, the lads we’ve got are doing great, but as always, if you can find quality that we think will help us kick along a little bit then we'll try and do it.”

Margetts and Omotayo look to be short-term absences.

“Jonny felt his calf a couple of weeks ago, came back, trained Thursday, Friday, Saturday felt it again,” said Lakeland. “He had a scan - we're probably looking at a couple of weeks for him, so it's just a niggly one, not a serious one. Gold felt his hamstring a little bit in training yesterday, so again I don't think it's a long-term one, but it's probably going to be a couple weeks.”

In their absence, Lynn were indebted to an early goal from Hughes, his second in two games, before the visitors levelled on 49 minutes. Crane restored the lead on 58 minutes before Hmami sealed the win at the death. Crane had replaced Kyle McFadden at the break, a precautionary move after the central defender felt his hamstring.

King’s Lynn Town: Boyes, Ronan, McFadden (Crane 46), Wilson, Sass (Crowe 89), Taylor, Johnson, Hughes (Williams 85), Barnes (Coulson 66), McCammon, Hmami. Subs not used: Coulson, Jones. Goals: Hughes 10, Crane 58, Hmami 90.

Marine: Corran, Whelan, Butler, Thomas (Bell 59), Gregson (Robinson 79), Murphy, Kamara (Scarisbrick 65), Lusiama (Sinclair-Smith 70), Wardle (Doyle 46), Mattock, Brown. Subs not used: Doyle. Goal: Mattock 49.

Attendance: 1,059