KENDAL Ladies coach Jon Elleray maintains his side have the necessary credentials to retain their Investec Conference North status despite a disappointing loss to Boots.

The 3-2 reverse was their third defeat on the spin, with Kendal now without a fixture until their trip to Ben Rhydding in February as the season takes a winter break.

With friendly matches arranged in January, Elleray insists his players will continue training twice a week in a bid to eradicate weaknesses ahead of the campaign’s resumption.

“Looking forward, we knew we really had to win the Boots game and now we’re under more pressure to pick up points,” he said.

“But I’m still confident we have the team to do it – I know where we went wrong and we will be working on it in training.

“We’ll be playing through the break, working on areas that need addressing and making sure we’re fully prepared to pick up points in the second half of the season.

“It’s a massive step up this league and I’m massively proud of my girls to have got to this level.

“This is harder than getting up last season but we knew it was going to be a massive challenge but we know we can compete and I’m remaining positive.”

After failing to score in their previous two games, Kendal started on the front foot and held a half-time lead thanks to a short corner straight strike from Nicola Conway.

Shortly after the re-start, the visitors restored parity through Tori Moore who tapped home after a short corner was deflected into her path.

And with 52 minutes on the clock, the away side had the lead as Moore was left unmarked in the D to net her second of the afternoon.

This goal triggered a frantic five-minute period as Conway replied for Kendal only for Nic Just to net what proved the winner for Boots from another short corner routine.

Kendal’s afternoon was summed up by the miss of a late penalty flick, with the home side slipping to ninth in the league table and missing Elleray’s nine-point Christmas target.

And while the 39-year-old was left frustrated by certain umpiring decisions, he accepts Kendal need to focus only on themselves and their own performances.

“It was very disappointing to lose the game on Saturday, we did everything right but didn’t get the luck,” he added.

“There were a couple of poor umpiring decisions which were crucial in fairness as they changed the course of the game.

“But I’m not making excuses, at the end of the day we lost –  we had our chances but we didn't take them.

“It’s one of those, you can point the finger at the umpires but we cannot control them, we can only control our own game.”