'Gentle kick on the backside required' - Linnets boss

Adam Lakeland admits he is tempted to change things as he attempts to get King’s Lynn Town back on track after two defeats in the space of three days.

The weekend defeat at Chorley was followed by a nasty surprise when Lynn went down 2-0 at home to struggling Farsley Celtic.

Somehow, Lynn kept hold of third spot in National League North as fellow promotion chasers were also beaten.

But Lynn head to South Shields this weekend knowing that another slip-up could prove costly.

Lakeland was frustrated by the midweek defeat and after the game suggested that, fit bodies permitting, he might be looking at alternative plans.

“I am after that,” he said. “Sometimes people need to come out of the team to just get a little gentle kick on the backside just to remind them that we expect a lot.

“Probably if we had everybody fully fit and available then it would make that choice a bit easier, but we're still without Freddie (Sass), Josh Hmami, we will have to see how he is, obviously Sam (Walker) is now out and Cody (Johnson) is a doubt.

“Midfield's a big concern, and I think it showed tonight, to be honest, I think when Sam went off the pitch and obviously with no Cody there, we haven't got that natural disciplined central midfield player. And I think we were too open. We're usually really organised and disciplined and have a good shape and we were far too open. We got countered far too easily. The distances between individuals and the units was far greater than it should be.

“We've certainly got a bit of thinking to do head of South Shields because if there's one team you don't want to give a lot of space to, it's them.”

Walker suffered a hamstring pull in midweek while Johnson’s availability is unknown.

“I'd prefer not to comment on why he might not be available for the weekend, but at the moment it's looking unlikely that he's going to be available for us,” said Lakeland.

Player availability, or the lack of, will be key.

“Right now I need to find a solution but so quick after the game, I haven't really had opportunity to think about it,” said Lakeland. “But it is something that we need to get sorted and whether that means rejigging our shape, or whether that means looking to bring another body and then we'll do what we feel we need to do.”.