Carlisle City lost their first game of the season and the 2-0 defeat at Marske, which means they are out of the FA Cup.
It leaves Kendal Town as the only member of the Northern League trio who have made progress in the prestigious competition as Penrith lost at Pickering on Friday night.
The Mintcakes were 3-1 winners at Crook Town, as Matt Flynn’s men backed up a fine 4-1 mid-week League win at Marske.
City might have suffered a backlash for that Marske performance from their FA Cup hosts but two first-half events probably made a difference to the outcome.
At 0-0 it looked as though City must take the lead with the ball tantalisingly two yards out from goal but Jordan Palmer just couldn’t get on the end of it, missing a great opportunity to give his side the lead.
Then on 44 minutes Marske took the lead after what City believed was a clear foul on Sam Smith and which even the home bench felt should have been punished.
There was no referee’s whistle and Jey Draper was allowed to go on, round the keeper and slot home the crucial first goal of the game.
City were just unable to get back in the game during an even second-half and Marske made certain of progress when Jack Bennett scored a second goal five minutes from time.
In their tie at Crook Town, a goal in the first minute from Tom Kilifin gave Kendal a dream start but the home side levelled on 17 minutes through Oscar Taylor.
It stayed that way until the last ten minutes when Jack Milburn (81) and Jamie Looker (88) gave Kendal the lead again, with more breathing space.
It could have got nerve jangling when Crook were awarded a 90th minute penalty but Corey Nicholson couldn’t convert.
Kendal will now have no mid-week game with scheduled opponents Guisborough involved in an FA Cup replay.
“We will take advantage of that in our two training sessions as we prepare for next Saturday when we play Crook again in the League this time at home,” said manager Matt Flynn.
“I was really pleased with the performance because although we made another great start, scoring in 12 seconds and could have been three or four up, we needed to show character when they came back into it and equalised.
“We really worked hard in the second half and got our reward in the end with those two late goals. I want us to be the fittest team in the League and the way we got through this game showed we are not far away,” he added.
You can hear what Carlisle City’s assistant manager Mark Boyd thought of the game at Marske by listening below:
