National League North

King's Lynn Town 1 Boston United 0

King's Lynn Town maintained their three-point advantage at the top of the National League North standings with a hard-fought derby victory over Boston United at The Walks.

Linnets striker Michael Gash was on target with the only goal of the game six minutes from time to settle the first league clash between the two sides for 19 years in front of a bumper crowd of 2,246.

Both teams ended the game with ten men with Luke Shiels being sent-off for the Pilgrims and Ryan Jarvis seeing red for Lynn late on.

The visitors were camped in Lynn's half in the early stages but the first opportunity of the game fell the way of Lynn's Gash, whose speculative effort drifted over the woodwork.

Five minutes in, Brad Abbot's free-kick almost caught out Lynn goalkeeper Alex Street who punched clear when under pressure.

Lynn received a huge let off in the eighth minute as the underfoot conditions made it difficult for both sides.

Ross Barrows knocked ball past the advancing Street and Jay Rollins gave chase, but Aaron Jones did brilliantly to get in a tackle to concede a corner.

After somewhat of a cautious start, Lynn began to grow into the game but they were helped by the early dismissal of Shiels after 15 minutes.

Shiels gave chase to Adam Marriott as he latched on to a sublime pass from Sam Kelly and the defender left the referee with little other option than to send him for an early bath after tangling with the striker's feet.

The resulting Aaron Jones free-kick from outside the box was well saved by Peter Crook who then denied Gash with the follow up.

Two minutes later, Kelly's left-footed effort from the edge of the box was palmed away by Crook as the hosts enjoyed a good spell.

Midway through the first half, Tom Platt saw his long-range effort turned over the woodwork by the fingertips of Street.

The Linnets carved out another half opportunity 12 minutes before the break but Henderson wasn't able to connect with Jones' low cross.

On the stroke of half-time both Rory McAuley and Barrows were unable to get on the end of a deep cross from Gash.

Seven minutes after the restart, Kelly was a whisker away from finding the back of the net from 25 yards out as Lynn began to step up the pressure.

The dangerous Jordan Thewlis made space and was just wide with his effort in the 55th minute as the Pilgrims offered a threat going forward.

Jones twice went close with free-kicks on the edge of the box as the Linnets desperately tried to break Boston's stubborn resistance.

The visitors kept Adam Marriott quiet for long periods of the game but in the 65th minute Lynn's leading scorer saw his drive beaten away by Crook.

Lynn brought on both Sonny Carey and Ryan Hawkins in the space of 15 second half minutes to give them an even more attacking look.

And it was Carey who produced a lovely bit of skill for Gash to poke the ball home at the far post.

Five minutes from time, Ryan Jarvis was shown a red card for for pulling back Pilgrims substitute Jake Wright in a carbon-copy of the earlier incident which saw Shiels receive his marching orders.

The victory leaves Lynn three points clear of York City in second and nine points ahead of Chester in third going into Saturday's trip to Alfreton.

King's Lynn Town: Street, Jones, Fox (Carey 65), Jarvis, Barrows (Hawkins 80), McAuley, Kelly (Ward 86), Richards, Gash, Marriott, Henderson. Subs not used: Payne, Ward, Stewart.

Boston United: Crook, Middleton, Whittle, Platt, Ainge, Shiels, Rollins, Abbott, Southwell, Thewlis (Wright 73), Woolford (Jackson 88). Subs not used: Knowles, Wafula, Willis.