Gateshead made life hard from the very start of Wednesday’s match, giving the ball away cheaply and far to often in the first 20 min’s.
This resulted in Kings Lynn grabbing two very easy goal in the opening 16 minutes, Kings Lynn’s Michael Frew grabbed both goals, his second was a cheeky lob over the stranded Musselwhite.
Gateshead needed to regroup and that is what they did in great fashion for the rest of the second half.
Lee Novak pulled one back after Carl Jones flashed a ball across goal for the oncoming Novak to slot home from 5 yards.
Six minutes Craig Baxter lofted a ball to Graeme Armstrong on the edge of the box from the right wing, Armstrong then chipped the ball over his own shoulder to Novak who beat the offside trap with ease to place the ball in the net for the second time.
Novak then latched onto a ball to find himself one on one with the Kings Lynn Keeper and he scored with ease to send the home crowd wild. A superb come back to take the lead on 40 minutes, Novak’s second hat-trick this month and 9th in four games.
The second half was a scrappy affair at times with Gateshead finding little coming through the centre of the park, Turnbull didn’t have the best of games with many passes going anywhere but Heed shirt.
Kings Lynn were denied a late equalizer when Paul Musselwhite made a reflex save during the last 5mins, the last 10 min’s of the game seen Kings Lynn all over the Gateshead defence, but the Heed held on well.
Line Up and ratings:
Musselwhite 6
Static for one of the goals, but showed his class near the end
Baxter 7
Solid throughout, wasn’t help by the midfield
Phillips 6
Found wanting at times, not looking stable at left back
Curtis 7
Stood tall, but started slow
Jones 8
Made first goal
Harwood 7
In and out game, had a great chance to head home in the first half
Nelthorpe 6
Looked a danger but ran with the ball to long, what happened to the Nelly that beat a man and whipped in a dangerous ball first, we want to see him back!!
Gate 7 (Captain)
Had to cover his team mates to many times, spoiling his own game
Turnbull 5
Woeful and in a different time zone, the lad has the skills to pay the bills there is no doubt, but needs to lift his head up.
Novak 10
Outstanding in everyway, if he was a painter he would be piccaso! As his balls was all over!!!
Man of the Match
Armstrong 7
Was in the mix, set up second goal
Subs:
Norton (not used)
P. Turnbull (not Used)
Southern 6
Didn’t see much of the ball, team was defending and not attacking when he entered play.
Francis 6
Shame he didn’t start
Holloway 6
Did nothing wrong in the 5 min’s run out he got.
