Port Vale were knocked out of the FA Cup in the first round, as Sonny Carey’s 81st minute winner meant that King’s Lynn progressed to the second round at the expense of the Valiants.
It was the visitors who had the first shot of the game in the sixth minute, when Simon Power’s speculative effort from outside the box squirmed well wide of Scott Brown’s near post.
Vale almost took the lead ten minutes later, when Mitch Clark’s cut-back ball to Tom Pope six yards from goal, was intercepted by a King’s Lynn defender, when the ball looked destined for Pope’s boot.
The Valiants had a scare mid-way through the second-half when Simon Power was played through with just Brown to beat, but his effort hit the side-netting, with the Valiants still level.
Just three minutes later, it was the Valiants who had the chance to take the lead, when Pope’s through ball split through the King’s Lynn defence, but Tom Conlon’s resulting effort was pushed wide by goalkeeper Archie Mair.
And that chance seemed to spark Vale into life, with the Valiants having another opportunity after 31 minutes, when Conlon’s dinked ball into the box was met by the head of David Amoo, but Archie Mair was equal to his effort.
A minute later, Amoo almost turned provider when he jinked past two defenders, before putting a ball into the box for Pope, whose header was caught and held by Mair.
And it was Vale who began to dominate proceedings with Amoo at the centre of it all, but his 37th minute speculative overhead kick was high and wide over Mair’s goal.
Two minutes later, the ball was played over to David Worrall outside the box, who cut inside and curled a wonderful effort on goal, only for Mair to produce a spectacular save to deny the Vale wideman and assure that the scores were level at the break.
Vale started the second-half looking to break the deadlock, but the King’s Lynn defence held firm, until Mitch Clark’s snapshot on the angle from inside the six-yard box was well parried away by Mair, ten minutes into the half.
And from the resulting corner, Worrall played a short ball to Conlon, whose ball into the box was met by Nathan Smith, but his header went agonisingly wide of the near post.
With 67 minutes gone, Vale thought they had taken the lead when Conlon’s long-range effort was parried into the path of David Worrall, who put the ball into the back of the net but he was adjudged to have been offside by the linesman.
Nine minutes later, Scott Burgess’ speculative effort from just outside the box briefly panicked Mair in the King’s Lynn goal, but his effort sailed just over the bar.
But with just nine minutes left, King’s Lynn substitute Sonny Carey fired the ball into the back of the net to give the visitors a late lead after he met a squared pass across the box before firing the ball into the roof of the net.
And that was the last notable action of the game as Vale look to get back on track against Liverpool under-21’s in the Papa John’s Trophy on Tuesday evening, after a disappointing exit from the FA Cup.
Port Vale: Brown, Clark, Smith, Legge, Crookes, Joyce, Conlon (McKirdy 75’), Burgess, Amoo, Worrall (Robinson 84’), Pope.
Unused subs: Visser, Brisley, Mills, Oyeleke, Cullen.
King’s Lynn Town: Southwell, Loza (Carey 68’), Richards, Jarvis, Clunan, Power (Marriott 68’), Brown, Barrows, Lupano, McAuley.
Unused subs: Smith, Fleming, King.