Peterborough Sports confirm survival at National League North level in dramatic fashion at King's Lynn Town

In truth survival from relegation had been virtually confirmed with a midweek home win over struggling Farsley Celtic, but Sports made sure with a last-gasp 1-0 win at the home of their nearest neighbours.

And fittingly it was joint-manager Michael Gash – a former King’s Lynn hero – who claimed the winning goal with a superb curling effort past former Peterborough United goalkeeper Paul Jones.

Gash had only entered the fray as an 80th-minute substitute so he wasn’t too tired to join in the exuberant celebrations that followed.

Sports are 15th, eight points clear of the drop zone with a home game against play-off contenders Chorley to come next Saturday (April 20). They already have a point more than they managed in an excellent first season at this level.

Lillianna Armstrong reports from King’s Lynn...

After all but securing their National League North status for a third season on Tuesday night in the home victory over Farsley Celtic, Peterborough Sports’ final away game of the 2023/24 campaign saw them make one of the shorter journeys to Kings Lynn Town.

The Linnets have proven to be a side that are hard to beat in recent months, despite having a rocky start to their own season, while ‘The Turbines’ were looking to beat their hosts for the very first time.

There was just one change to the Sports XI that started in midweek with Ryan Fryatt returning from suspension to replace Ashton Fox who picked up a slight knock in the week. The rest of the XI and substitutes remained unchanged.

The early stages of the game were fairly quiet with both sides trying to find their feet early on and maintain a bit of possession. On the 10-minute mark however, Sports saw two great chances in quick succession go abegging as Brandon Njoku forced Jones into making a good save and soon after Dan Jarvis struck the crossbar with a curling effort from just outside the box.

‘The Turbines’ certainly had the better chances during the first 45 minutes and they had the ball in the back of the net on two separate occasions. On 32 minutes, a Matt Tootle free kick was parried away by Jones who then saved an effort from Sports captain Mark Jones before Njoku poked in the rebound. However, the linesman had his flag up for offside. Just five minutes later and Jarvis found the net, but his effort was ruled out for handball.

The home side were dealt a blow just five minutes into the second half when forward Jonathan Margetts was shown a straight red card for a tackle on Sports’ Dan Lawlor. Lawlor was unable to continue afterwards and was soon replaced by Hugh Alban-Jones.

Despite being down to 10 men, Kings Lynn played some of their best football of the game and had some of their best chances too.

Njoku and Jarvis continued to have some decent chances as the game went on with the latter seeing an effort inside the area well blocked after taking too long to get a shot away on 75 minutes.

With 10 minutes of normal time left to play, Jones made way for Gash and it was written in the stars that he was the one to win the game for his side in added time with a brilliant curling effort from just outside the area which found the bottom corner past the outstretched Jones.

Sports: Peter Crook, Matt Tootle (sub Cuba Meyer 80 mins), Elicha Ahui, Ryan Fryatt, Rory McAuley, Connor Johnson, Dan Lawlor (sub Hugh Alban-Jones 55 mins), Josh McCammon, Mark Jones (sub Michael Gash 80 mins), Dan Jarvis, Brandon Njoku.

Unused subs: Sidney Pereira, Matty Miles.