King’s Lynn Town continued their impressive run of form with a 2-0 victory over Spennymoor Town - despite being without manager Paul Caddis on the touchline.

With Caddis laid low by a sickness bug that had swept through the club during the week, assistant boss Adam Rooney stepped into the hot seat and oversaw another valuable three points for the Linnets.

And while Rooney was still feeling the effects of the illness himself, there was plenty to lift his spirits as Lynn strengthened their position in the National League North play-off places.

The hosts were largely in control against their struggling visitors, with a goal in each half securing the points and another clean sheet. Had Lynn been more clinical in front of goal, the winning margin could easily have been greater.

“Another win at home in front of our own fans, a clean sheet and another two goals, could have had a couple more -delighted all round,” was Rooney’s verdict.

“I think for the majority of the first half, we largely dominated without creating loads of chances.

"I thought we were on top and then at the start of the second half, they probably had a little bit of a spell for 10 minutes maybe where it was us under a bit of pressure.

“We stopped winning the first contact, second contact and they pinned us in.

“But the danger for teams coming here is that we have a lot of pace out wide and on the counter are very good at picking teams off. So, sometimes it actually plays into our hands a little bit.

“And once we had the second goal, we looked fairly comfortable late on then.”

Kwame Thomas broke the deadlock from the penalty spot in the 37th minute after Jesse Nwabueze was brought down by George Cantrill, making it two successful spot-kicks in as many matches for the striker.

Ross Crane gave Lynn breathing space with 18 minutes remaining, skipping past a defender before calmly slotting beyond the goalkeeper.

The winger was a constant threat after the break and could have added further goals to his tally, with Lynn’s failure to convert several promising openings one of the few frustrations on an otherwise satisfying afternoon.

“If we’re going to be critical here, we should have had a couple more goals,” said Rooney.

“It’s something we’re demanding. We’ve scored quite a number of goals this year. In terms of expected goals a game, it’s quite up there.

"We’re creating chances and that’s the pleasing thing, that we’re getting those opportunities to miss the chances and we’re getting a lot of bodies in around the box.

“We’re fashioning different type of openings, whether it’s from crosses, the winger getting their shots, whatever it is.

“But, yeah, to be critical, we could take more of them, but that’s a good issue to have.”

Despite Spennymoor’s lowly league position, Lynn had every reason to guard against complacency following their heavy home defeat to Marine earlier in the campaign.

But there was little prospect of another upset this time as the Linnets demonstrated the progress they have made, both in attack and defensively, since that August setback.

“We’re still improving and learning as a team,” said Rooney. “I think we came in with 12 games to go last year and it was a proper scrap to try and just make sure we stayed in this division.

“There’s performances we’ve gone to, like Marine which woke us up, where we’ve had moments where we’ve been disappointed and we need to learn from.

“I think on the whole, I think as a group, we can see that we are actually improving. We’re moving in the right direction, in the attacking sense and the amount of clean sheets we’ve picked up since earlier on in the season.

“And that comes from right from the front men all the way back through to (goalkeeper) Ronnie (Hollingshead). It’s not just the back four and the keeper, that comes from the whole team working, defending the box and we have to do that side of it.

“So, yes, I think we’re improving. But we won’t get carried away where we are at -there’s still plenty to improve on.”

Off the pitch, the club had been taking precautions to prevent the illness from spreading further through the squad, although Caddis was unable to recover in time to take his usual place in the dugout.

Rooney, whose voice was still suffering from the effects of the bug, revealed that players and matchday staff had also been affected.

“He’s not in a great way,” admitted Rooney. “I think he’ll blame me because I think I had it before him.

"We’ve had quite a bit going on in the club. I think there’s a number of matchday staff as well and we had to be wary of the group earlier on this week that we didn’t have too much time together just to make sure we didn’t spread it out in the group.

"Thankfully, all the players seemed to have come through with an exception of one or two, maybe little coughs and stuff.”

With Stourbridge due at The Walks for next weekend’s FA Trophy tie, Rooney will be hoping Caddis is fit enough to return to the touchline.

Although the stand-in boss enjoyed a winning afternoon in charge, he is in no hurry to swap his assistant’s role for the top job on a permanent basis.

“I always wanted to go down that route eventually, but over the last number of years, it’s just been great walking alongside the gaffer and being in an assistant role and it’s something I really enjoy,” he said.

“It’s a different gig being the assistant - you get to have more crack with the lads!”