King's Lynn boss hoping for helping hand in promotion bid

The glamour of the FA Cup is over for another year after the defeat by Stevenage last weekend. 

But the Lynn boss is clearly hoping some of the money accrued from the journey to the second round sees its way into his budget. 

Widdrington’s team for the visit of Hereford (12.30pm kick-off) will, perhaps, prove the need for help – Jordan Ponticelli and Ben Stephens were both on the bench a week ago, but neither was fit enough to kick a ball in anger. Theo Widdrington has joined them in the treatment room after lasting just 18 minutes against Stevenage – and suddenly the squad looks a little light. 

“We need strengthening without a shadow of a doubt,” said the Lynn boss. “I have got 13, 14 lads who I would start every week if I could, but then I think behind that, they are great lads behind that, whether they are younger or they are not quite ready for the level, whatever, but they do need strengthening. We have missed a couple of lads who would have been involved (against Stevenage) and Theo gets injured early in the game – a massive loss to us so, yes, it needs strengthening.” 

King's Lynn Town return to league action against Hereford after their FA Cup run was ended by Stevenage (Image: Ian Burt)

Apart from the BBC fees for their live coverage of the game and the share of the gate receipts and extra sponsorship, Lynn took little else from the game – there is no prize money for the losers – but Widdrington is clearly hoping owner Stephen Cleeve will be able to use some of the earnings from the run to finance reinforcements. 

“I hope, I don’t know,” he said. “Hopefully whatever this has brought financially for the football club will put us in good stead for the rest of the season.” 

Cup commitments mean Lynn are playing catch-up on the league front, but they are handily placed at the top end with at least three games in hand on their closest rivals. Hereford are 15th in the table. 

And Widdrington believes the players he does have are more than capable of playing at a higher level. 

“Some of them lads who have never been on this stage and I hope some of them lads are going to be on that stage more regularly because they can handle it,” he said. “Some of my lads can play for them (Stevenage), without a shadow of a doubt. 

“I believe myself and a lot of them players should be at a higher level than where we are. I genuinely believe that, I know I should, so from that point of view we are not going to stop and be happy what we are doing in the National North as a football club.” 

Lynn need to get back on the horse quickly, and assistant boss Hugo Langton says a week of preparation has gone well. 

“It’s been another normal week, business a usual, the players to their credit have come back in and been exceptional on the training ground,” he said. “They’ve been keen to train and keen to get on the pitch this weekend and get the season back up and running again.” he said. 

There will be obvious fitness doubts over Ponticelli, Widdrington and Stephens but aside from them, Lynn have a clean bill of health. 

“It is a great game to get involved in and a lunchtime kick-off,” added Langton. “We had 4,000 in The Walks last week, if a lot of those 4,000 can come back on top of the 1,000, 1,500 who have recently been through the door that would be brilliant to back the boys.

 “Hereford, again, is a big club for this division, they have a lot of history, they’ve got some good players they had a good start to the season, I think they have wobbled a little bit, they had a good cup run, they went out to Portsmouth, so they are going to be a really tough opponent and we are also there to be shot at – we are at home and we have a good record at home so it should be a good game.”