Fourth home defeat in a row for Town as King's Lynn show their class
STRATFORD Town suffered their fourth straight home defeat as King's Lynn boosted their Evo-Stik League South Premier title hopes with a 5-1 victory at the MoodChimp Stadium on Saturday.
The Linnets were simply too strong for Stratford in all areas of the pitch and on this ruthless form you would not bet against them finishing above Hereford to claim automatic promotion.
For Stratford, they remain 14th in the table on 51 points, still well on course of eclipsing last season's total of 56.
Town have made a bit of a habit of conceding early goals and it was more of the same on Saturday as the visitors went ahead after just three minutes.
Simon Lappin's corner was met by the towering Tom Ward, who steered his header home virtually unchallenged.
Just five minutes later, King's Lynn almost found their second when, from another Lappin corner, Michael Gash produced a bullet header that rattled Louis Connor's bar before going over.
The onslaught continued and King's Lynn doubled their lead in the 11th minute, again from a corner.
Another accurate Lappin delivery found Michael Gash, whose header was saved, but dropped, by Connor, before Leon Mettam knocked it in from close range.
Town responded well to the goal and they got themselves back in it in the 16th minute. Loysio Recci connected with Will Grocott's corner and the ball was adjudged to have crossed the line despite the efforts of the King's Lynn defender who attempted to hook it away.
The goal gave Town the boost they needed and they played some good stuff from that point, but the wind was knocked out of their sails in the 36th minute as King's Lynn restored their two-goal advantage.
Some excellent work from Gash down the left ended in him whipping in a cross for Mettam, who fired past Connor.
Any idea that Town could get something from the game evaporated five minutes into the second half when skipper James Fry turned the ball into his own net.
Lappin produced another beautifully-weighted ball into the box, the luckless Fry got his head to it, but his touch saw it sail past Connor into the top corner.
The action was not all one way though and Stratford did cause some problems of their own.
Just before the hour, a defence-splitting pass from Dan Summerfield put Charlie Evans through and the youngster forced a good stop out of Alex Street, before Ben Stephens' effort on the rebound went just wide.
Minutes later, Grocott twisted and turned the King's Lynn defence before attempting a glorious dipping effort that was tipped away by Street at full stretch.
King's Lynn put the salt in the wound nine minutes from time when substitute Tom Siddons cut in from the left before firing past Connor from the edge of the area.