King’s Lynn Town Ladies FC gift three goals to Cambridge City with inconsistencies and lapses of concentration

King’s Lynn Town Ladies’ inconsistencies and momentary lapses of concentration saw them gift three goals against stiff opposition from Cambridge City.

The match was a return fixture against a much stronger Cambridge side that provided fierce competition for the Linnets after their original opponents were unable to fulfil this week’s pre-season fixture.

Whereas the previous fixture, Cambridge had fielded a development side with a mix of first team players this was a very much stronger side, as was the case with Lynn who were able to field a squad of 18 as manager Alex Cook tried an array of potential Linnets for the coming season.

Early play saw Lynn press high, in order to prevent Cambridge any avenue of escape from their half. Lynn were successful in closing out any right-sided attacks but the opposition were causing Fran Peeling at right back some issues with their pace on the left.

Cambridge to this end had the early opportunities but returning Linnets goalkeeper Cristina Vivas Artacho was in fine form, preventing the opposition from capitalising.

The Linnets had a couple of good chances at the other end but the confidence of previous weeks seemed lacking and shots were quickly gathered by the home side’s keeper.

Lynn went down midway through the first half with a momentary lapse in concentration, gifting the Cambridge side an easy goal.

The scoreline remained at 1-0 to Cambridge by the half-time break but Lynn, despite the setback, did not look out of sorts against their opponents who play a league above them.

The second half started as a scrappier affair with both sides giving away the ball from poor passing.

Cambridge had a few long range efforts at the Lynn net, mostly wide of the mark while goalkeeper Artacho made some fine reflex saves.

Cook continued to provide minutes testing his ‘trialists’ mixed in with the core members of the squad, which provided some respite from the heat and intensity.

Lynn were awarded a late penalty, which Peeling stepped up to take, only to hit the left hand upright, having beaten the outstretched Cambridge keeper.

The Cambridge side capitalised on Lynn’s bad luck and, as heads went down, proceeded to close out the game with two further goals to leave Cook disappointed.

He said: “We held our own for at least three quarters of the game but the final quarter was our undoing.

“We need to maintain our concentration for the full 90 minutes, especially against stronger sides.

“There are some strong teams in our league and everybody has been recruiting to maintain and improve. We need to be more consistent for the entire 90 minutes.

“We have shown some sparkles of brilliance in our pre-season but we still have some work to do, and the league is only three weeks away.”