King's Lynn and Bedford Town bosses reflect on FA Cup draw

The sight of two sets of flowers sitting in the press box set the tone on a day when King's Lynn Town didn't come up smelling of roses in the FA Cup.

For whatever reason, the high-flying Linnets looked out-of-sorts and off speed against a Bedford side who produced the kind of courageous performance you'd expect from a Gary Setchell side in a cup competition.

Every match has its own narrative and that was certainly case on Saturday as Setchell returned to his former club with a handful of players who played under his tenure at The Walks.

And perhaps it was an ironic twist of fate that Michael Clunan – the last remaining one of the former manager's signings at the club – who scored the goal to earn Lynn a second bite of the cherry after Drew Richardson had fired the lower-league Eagles in front on the stroke of half-time.

“Fair play to Gary and his side, I thought they were excellent,” admitted Widdrington, who knew that his side had been far from their best over the 90 minutes.

“They applied themselves brilliantly, made it difficult for us to break them down.

"We had enough chances to win the game, they can argue they probably had similar, but at the end of the day we are in the hat so it is a positive result.

“Every one of you will want me to be negative and I ain’t going to be negative. We are still unbeaten after nine games. Superb."

Widdrington admitted that for once his side had been a off colour against their Southern Central Premier Division visitors.

“By the time we made some really good chances the lads who usually would take them had been starved that much of going towards the goal that we just didn’t have our touch," he said.

“But at the end of the day, we weren’t planning or hoping for another game on Tuesday but we have got one. It is half time, it is 1-1, let’s play ball.”

And Setchell's take?

"It was a bit of a classic FA Cup tie with the higher league side dominating possession and looking better with the ball, then you had us showing all the guts and determination trying to him them on the counter attack.

"We've got a replay, which is an amazing achievement as these have been beating everyone in the Conference North so far and they're unbeaten.

"They've got some great players and a great manager and being a King's Lynn lad I hope they go on to achieve promotion this season."

So now on to the next chapter on Tuesday night.

Widdrington said: “The message before the game was patience, but not with lack of pace and I just thought we allowed the game to be played at a slower tempo than we needed to, we needed to up the tempo so I think we were probably five miles an hour slower than we should have been.

“But as sure as eggs are eggs we will be up to maximum speed on Tuesday.”

The replay could provide Bedford with a tougher assignment than Saturday, but it is one that Setchell and his Bedford side won't shy away from.

"I think Tuesday will probably be tougher for us than today," he said.

"I think we've poked a hornets nest and I think Tommy will have his players fully revved up for Tuesday night, where I think the first 20 minutes will be key."