Kendal Town ended a run of three successive defeats with a comfortable 5-2 win at Tow Law Town in the FA Vase.
They had the game virtually won by half-time and can now plan for a trip to Horden Community Welfare in the next round on September 21. They won 2-0 at Birtley Town – where Kendal recently lost 2-0!
But that won’t be on the radar of manager Jimmy Marshall just yet because there will be a number of Northern League games to occupy him and his team before then.
And that starts on Tuesday night with their second county derby – a trip to Penrith to take on Darren Edmondson’s side who were also successful in their Vase tie yesterday at Ilkley.
Kendal took only 11 minutes to grab the lead at Tow Law after Ryan Winder went down the line and put over a decent cross which had the home defence in trouble. James Bailey closed down one of the defenders, earned possession and then lifted the ball over the keeper.
The hosts then had their best spell and hit a post, followed by strong claims for a penalty which were turned down. It then took a fine save by Chris Cheetham to keep Kendal’s lead intact.
But from that fine save Kendal broke and doubled their lead. Winder was through on goal and as the keeper tried to close him down he managed to poke the ball past him and into the net.
The home keeper then produced two fine saves in quick succession to deny Bailey and Steve Yawson, but right on half-time a clinical finish by Yawson gave them their three-goal advantage.
It was Yawson who made it 4-0 after nut-megging a defender and then finishing with a powerful strike.
Kendal were cruising, the game was over but Tow Law surprised everyone with two quick goals in the 80th and 81st minutes from Jan Dlugosz and James Hughes.
However, Kendal had the last word after 87 minutes with a good finish from Josh Winder.
Manager Jimmy Marshall said: “It was good to score five goals away from home and there were some good ones. It was a positive performance although the two goals we conceded infuriated me.
“We got minutes into the substitutes, suffered no injuries, are through to the next round but we are already looking forward to Tuesday and the game at Penrith.”
You can hear what chairman Michael O’Neill thought below:
