Adam Lakeland was keen to accentuate the positives ahead of King’s Lynn Town’s opening game of 2025.

A seven-game unbeaten run ended ignominiously at Scunthorpe on New Year’s Eve, with Lynn winning just two points from a possible nine to end 2024.

The top of the National League North table has twice been in their grasp, only for it to slip away - although their current fourth place is not at all shabby.

And while the form is as gloomy as the weather, Lakeland refers to the relative positions from 12 months ago as proof of how much things have changed. A 2023 Boxing Day home defeat to Boston was followed by a 2-0 loss in the reverse fixture on New Year’s Day, which left Lynn fourth from bottom of the table.

Lakeland kept them up, and this season has seen them fighting at the other end of the table. But the concern is whether they have the quality to match their promotion rivals: Scunthorpe, for example, were a Football League team just three years ago so their name has some cache in National League North. The New Year’s Day attendance was more than 4,000 and their budget is probably the highest in the division.

Lakeland said: “If you compare us to Scunthorpe, I think they are a very experienced team, they've got a lot of experienced players, a lot of know-how in that group, looked a lot more comfortable in a big game than we did in the first half – a lot more composure, a lot more control and got on top of us. They smelt blood and they went for it and every credit to them.

“But it's important that we're not too down about today's result because last time we came here, we were in a relegation fight and we've come here today knowing that if we had won we'd have gone top of the league. Obviously we’re only halfway through the season, so nothing's achieved or lost at this stage, but we've come a hell of a long way in such a short space of time. We've got to probably remember who we were up against – 4,000 people here today, probably double the budget that we've got and a lot of experience.

“So it's frustrating, but we can't be too down - we've just got to learn and move on.”

Lynn will be looking to start the New Year with a positive reaction when they head to 19th-placed Warrington, who they beat 3-1 at The Walks on the opening day

“I don't want to watch that again,” said Lakeland after the Scunthorpe loss. “We didn't perform like a team that's up near the top of the table today, we really didn't and that's something that the players will be just as disappointed as I am with that. But generally when we've had bad results we've bounced back and we've obviously got a very difficult game away at Warrington, but it's a winnable game if we go and perform and that's all that we can look to do.”

Lakeland will be hoping leading scorer Jonny Margetts is available after he missed the Scunthorpe game because of a knee injury.