A worrying injury to forward Charlie Bowman overshadowed Kendal Town's 2-1 defeat to Brighouse Town on Saturday.

The Mintcakes' attacker left the Pye Motors Stadium to go to the Westmorland General Hospital where it was revealed he had suffered fracture to the right eye socket, stitches to a laceration and scratches to the surface of the eye.

The injury compounded a miserable afternoon for Kendal who were two goals down at half time to headers from Brighouse's Ben Wharton and James Pollard. Sam Bailey did pull one back with four minutes to play but the visitors were able to see out the game.

Brighouse were the better team in the first half and opened the scoring after just five minutes when a deep cross in the from right hand side by Adam Baker was headed into the net by Wharton.

Kendal did have their chances though, with both Charlie Bailey and Martin Grundy firing tame shots into the arms of visiting keeper Tom Taylor.

Michael Fish was also a constant threat to Kendal and he blazed over the bar from a corner and later headed the ball into the arms of Kitchen.

Kendal’s woes continued when Bowman went off with a fractured eye socket before Danny Forbes suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury.

However despite all the problems, Kendal created some good chances, after a long ball down the field fell to Charlie Bailey who placed the ball over the bar.

He then missed a good chance after dinking the ball over the bar from close range after a well worked move saw the former Morecambe player through on goal.

Brighouse made it 2-0 on the stroke of half time when a Dan Grimshaw corner was headed into the net by Pollard.

Kendal made a positive start to the second half and pressed Brighouse back without testing the keeper. Charlie Bailey fired the ball over from distance while Josh Wardle headed wide from a deep free kick in from the left.

Brighouse continued to look potent going forward while Thomas Dugdale toe poked the ball wide before Fish headed the ball over the right hand post.

However Kendal pulled a goal back with just four minutes left after Sam Bailey hit a superb low volley into the net. Bailey was left with plenty of time and space before volleying home from close range.

Kendal tried as they might for the equaliser, while Brighouse scrambled the ball clear. With Kendal desperate to draw level, Matthew Poole created the best opportunity when left unmarked in the penalty box however the linesman flagged for offside as Brighouse held on for the win.