CARL ADAMS remains determined to see Stratford Town end the season with another highest ever league position, despite a crushing defeat to title-chasing King’s Lynn Town.
The Linnets cruised to a 5-1 weekend win at the MoodChimp Stadium, sending Town to a fourth successive home defeat.
Manager Adams admitted there was a class in quality, as befits two clubs with vastly different resources.
Stratford’s challenge in the remaining six games in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier, starting with the visit of play-off chasing Slough Town on Saturday, is to keep pushing to better last season’s 14th place and 56 points.
Town occupy 15th place on 51 points, six points off 12th-placed Frome who have played one game more.
“It was a tough afternoon on Saturday,” said Adams. “Us playing against the likes of King’s Lynn is similar to Watford or Bournemouth coming up against Manchester City in the Premier League in terms of resources.
“The reality is that the top six or seven teams in this league are in a different class to the others and the league is stronger this time around, as last season it was probably two or three which were that much better.
“We’ve got some difficult fixtures to play, but I still believe that we can better last season’s 14th place and 56-point total and they remain our targets as we enter the last month of the season.”
After the groundstaff had worked tirelessly to get Saturday’s game on, Town paid for a poor start against second-placed King’s Lynn as their errors were ruthlessly punished.
Tom Ward was left unmarked to nod home the opener after just three minutes and then Town keeper Louis Connor spilled a Michael Gash header for Ward to make it 2-0 after 12 minutes.
Stratford battled back to cut the deficit when Loyiso Recci’s header from Will Grocott’s corner was ruled to have crossed the line.
However, the visitors went into half-time 3-1 ahead after Gash led a counter-attack and Leon Mettam slammed home from 15 yards.
Town again conceded early in the second half, with home skipper Jimmy Fry only able to send Simon Lapin’s cross into his own net past Connor on 50 minutes.
King’s Lynn added the fifth on 81 minutes when substitute Tom Siddons drilled home from 20 yards.
Easter Monday’s scheduled match at Banbury United was postponed, with a new date yet to be arranged.
Info courtesy of STISA.
