A last gasp try gave Kendal a vital 18-17 victory over Manchester to keep them 11 points clear of the relegation zone.
Two teams will be relegated from Regional One North West and at the moment Burnage and Kirkby Lonsdale are looking vulnerable.
In the wet conditions Kendal started the game strongly and took the lead after eight minutes with a Dan Lowther penalty.
It was rather against the run of play when Manchester levelled with a penalty but Kendal quickly regained the initiative.
Manchester gave away a series of penalties, and finally the referee ran out of patience ten minutes from the break, and showed a yellow card.
It took some time for Kendal to make their man advantage count but with the 40 minute up the home forwards set up a good drive.
Dan Lowther made a break before finding Ignacio Cisint with a looped pass. Although he had Dan Shorrock offering support he chose to go himself and made the line for a half-time lead of 8-3.
It was pretty even for the third quarter of the game but on 23 minutes Kendal scored again.
A kick ahead from Ben Dixon was taken by a Manchester player but the onrushing Dixon drove him backwards.
In trying to break out from there a Manchester pass eventually went astray and Cisint intercepted to romp over for his second try.
Manchester responded well and proceeded to play their best rugby of the game.
They reduced the arrears with a penalty try when Mattie Kaye stopped an attack illegally near the line and was yellow carded for his pains.
It looked ominous for Kendal when, with less than five minutes to play, Manchester took the lead.
The visitors won a line-out and worked it well to score a converted try and a 17-13 lead.
Kendal hit back and set-up some promising attacks through the forwards but they couldn’t link with the backs and chances were lost.
Manchester were reduced to 14 when one of their players took-out young Aaron Stephens, who was flattened by a solid tackle.
Finally, in an epic finish, a thundering drive by the forwards aided by some of the backs got to the line where Dane Blenkharn claimed the winning try.
The failed conversion was the last act of the game.
