Shot down (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Shot down

7:41am Friday 16th July 2004 in Sport By Dennis Aris

KENDAL Town's nine-goal hammering by Carlisle United in the first pre-season friendly will have been tempered by the financial boost from the best gate likely to be seen at Parkside, as the Blues' travelling faithful of around 1,500 packed into the ground.

Kendal Town 1 -Carlisle United 9...

Carlisle, newly-relegated from the Third Division of the Football League, were out to demonstrate, however, that they have the capacity to bounce straight back with goal scoring bursts in each half which emphasised the four division gulf between the sides.

There was nothing lucky about any of the Carlisle goals, their elusive forwards giving the Town defence the run-around before firing accurate shots into the corners of the net.

Brendan McGill, jinked his way into space to hit the first goal on 15 minutes, then in the 31st tricky winger Carlos Roca, signed from Oldham recently, bamboozled two defenders before hitting the second.

McGill scored his second goal in the 40th minute and, with Town still reeling, Andy Preece made it 4-0.

The second half saw both teams introduce what are likely to be their second-string players and the action was more muted until the 68th minute when Kendal's first-choice keeper last season, Lee Ward, dived to saving Farrell's well-struck penalty kick.

The 79th minute saw the start of Carlisle's second goal burst. Farrell blasting in the fifth and less than a minute later he completed his hat-trick with the goal of the game, a deliberately struck 25-yarder which curled into the top corner of the net.

Despite the scoreline Town had not been playing badly and a minute later winger Chris Bennett cut inside to meet a low drive from Mayers into the box and he ran on to strike the ball well beyond the reach the keeper's reach.

Carlisle were not finished, however and Hanley netted twice in successive minutes with Bradley rounding of the rout by lashing the ball into the roof of the net three minutes from the end.