Football - Kendal Town 2, Bridlington Town 1 (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Football - Kendal Town 2, Bridlington Town 1

11:05pm Friday 14th April 2006 in

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BEHIND to a fluky goal after just nine minutes Kendal battled back to thrill the home Good Friday crowd by snatching the points in the 90th minute.

Victory was also sweetened by results elsewhere which mean that Kendal have secured at least a play-off place in the UniBond League First Division and are just two points behind league leaders Mossley who were held to a 2-2 draw at Eastwood Town.

Third-placed Fleetwood are four points adrift of Town after 1-1 draw at Chorley, with fourth-placed Woodley Sports, six points behind perhaps the greatest danger to as they have two games in hand.

After Tuesday's lacklustre performance the crowd was stunned when a hopeful cross-cum shot from way out on the right by Bridlington's Lewis dipped over Kendal keeper James Salisbury and crept in of the far post.

It proved to be the visitors' only significant shot of the whole match, however, as determined Kendal controlled the majority of the play and could have netted a couple of first half goals if any of the four convincing looking shouts for penalties had been successful.

An equaliser looked inevitable, however, although supporters were becoming anxious as the second half wore on and a number of promising attacks were squandered by miscued strikes.

Persistence paid of in the 59th minute, however, when Chris Ward collected a pass 10 yards out and volleyed a lob across the face of the goal for Ged Smith to net a well-taken header.

Determined Town were not content with salvaging a point, yet despite the largely one-way traffic for the remaining 30 minutes a draw looked on the cards until skill and luck combined as the game moved into added time.

Ged Smith played the ball in from out on the left, substitute Stuart Cliff directed it down to Ward and his rather scuffed shot defeated Bridlington keeper Gavin Kelly.

On Easter Monday Kendal's championship challenge continues with a long away trip to Colwyn Bay.

Their run-in then involves away trips to Spalding next Saturday and to Stocksbridge Park Steels on Tuesday, April 25 and a grand home finale to the season against Shepshed Dynamo on Saturday, April 29.