King’s Lynn Town will end 2024 at the home of Scunthorpe United – where there are plenty of reminders of past glories.

Tyler Denton, Ross Barrows, Michael Clunan and, briefly, Joe Rowley, have all worn the Lynn shirt with distinction – Barrows and Clunan were instrumental in promotion to the National League in 2019.

Five years on and they are fighting to get The Iron up to a division which remains largely unfamiliar to Lynn after just two seasons there, but one which has signalled a huge fall from grace for Scunthorpe, whose 72-year tenure in the EFL ended in 2022.

While Glanford Park is one of the more illustrious settings in National League North, on the pitch there’s little between the two teams: Lynn are third, a point ahead of their hosts who have a game in hand. It could have been a rosier picture for Lynn, had they not been held to a 2-2 Boxing Day draw at home by struggling Needham Market – a win would have seen them top of the table.

It was a disappointment that Lakeland will hope his players can shake off on Tuesday afternoon (3pm), but post-match on Thursday he was in no mood to play the ‘little old Lynn’ line.

“It will be a tough game for Scunthorpe as well, won’t it, because we're a good team and we haven't played particularly well today, but I know we'll be better when we go up there,” he said.

“It's always a difficult place to go, but it's one of the best places to go in the division and perform.

“The players need a bit of a rest just to recover mentally and physically and we're back in doing a good couple of days prep for that game.

“It's a game that we've just got to go into and enjoy. I think if you look at the teams who are up there at the minute, probably with the exception of Curzon who are obviously doing incredibly well for a club of their size, Scunthorpe and Kidderminster, they’re both bigger clubs than us, and for us to be going toe to toe with them is a massive achievement at this stage.

“But we want more, we want to keep on getting better, we want to keep putting points on the board and that's a game that we're thoroughly looking forward to.”