COACH Jon Elleray claims his side’s decision-making needs improvement after Kendal Ladies failed to climb away from immediate danger in Investec Conference North with defeat at Stourport.

Sarah Cavendish and Lora Symonds fired the hosts into a two-goal lead before Nicola Conway halved the deficit with her tenth strike of the season.

And while Elleray insists the tactics employed were correct, he believes greater patience on the ball is needed if Kendal are to have greater joy in the attacking third.

“We had our game-plan and that was to be counter-attacking but we needed a little bit more composure and wait for opportunities to open up,” he said.

“Instead we tried to force it too much and turned over possession too often. As soon as we got hold of the ball we tried to hit our forwards but they were getting picked off by Stourport’s defenders.

“Although we conceded more short-corners than I would have liked, we defended very well as a team and improved in the second-half and were still in the game near the end.

“It was a difficult weekend all told as we had to contend with various absences – they had six substitutes while we only had one.

“But nevertheless decision-making on the ball was definitely a key factor for me.

“The style of play was right but it’s a case of getting the balance right and I think we went too far and tried to be too counter-attacking.”

Stourport stormed into a 25th minute lead as Cavenish converted a penalty corner, with the same route to goal seeing Symonds double the Worcestershire club’s advantage.

Conway reduced the arrears in the 51st minute with a flick which now sees her top the division’s goalscoring charts alongside University of Durham’s Philippa Lewis.

While disappointed not to pick up any points and build on the previous week’s victory at Ben Rhydding, results elsewhere meant the fallout from defeat was not too great.

Basement side Doncaster and Boots lost at University of Durham and Whitley Bay and Tynemouth respectively, while Ben Rhydding drew against Loughborough Students.

And with fifth-placed Loughborough travelling to Kirkbie Kendal School on Saturday, Elleray is hopeful his side can give themselves some breathing space in the battle against the drop.

“We’d have liked to get some points out the Stourport game but there are still matches left to take points from,” he added.

“We aim to take points from all teams as we know we can compete on our day and as long as we accumulate points along the way we should hopefully be fine.

“We only lost 2-1 to Loughborough last time at their place and that was on a water-based pitch which we don’t normally come across.

“Hopefully on our own pitch we’ll be able to take something.”