King's Lynn beaten by Needham Market in FA Youth Cup

King's Lynn Town Under-18s were left to rue a number of missed chances as they exited the FA Youth Cup at the Preliminary Round stage last night.

Despite dominating the early stages and creating lots of openings at The Walks, the young Linnets were twice forced to come from behind before being sunk by a late winner from the Marketman in a 3-2 defeat.

Disappointed manager Alex Cross said: "If you don't put the ball in the back of the net you are leaving yourselves open to potentially coming unstuck and that's what happened.

"Even at 2-2 we missed another brilliant chance on the counter attack and Needham scored a winner with two minutes left. We wasn't ruthless enough in the final third.

"They came with a game plan and full credit to them, they were excellent in the second half and we wish them all the best for the next round."

Cross added: "Obviously it's a bitter pill for everyone to swallow with all the hard work that has gone on, but there will be plenty of opportunities to put it right during the season.

"It wasn't a case of any of the team not being at the races, we just couldn't put our chances away when they did arrive."

Charlie Royle cancelled out Needham's opener going into in the break before Nico Costa won and converted the penalty to make it 2-2 in the second half.

A brilliant counter-attack saw Robert Osborne twice denied late on before the visitors went on to break Lynn hearts at the death.

Taylor Clark, Ollie Fraser and James Letts were all on target for the Marketmen who successfully won the Thurlow Nunn Youth League Central Division last season.