Football - Town back to theri best (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Football - Town back to theri best

11:49pm Tuesday 22nd February 2005 in Sport By Dennis Aris

Kendal Town 4, Kidsgrove Atheltic 1.

Kendal Town were at their best as they tore into Kidsgrove Athletic last night.

For 45 minutes Town regained their promotion-chasing form and, although their control slipped in the second half, the final score of 4-1 was ample revenge for defeat by the Staffordshire side back in October.

In an immaculate spell of flowing football Town gave Kidsgrove three of the best before the match was half-an-hour old.

Peter Smith headed in a Lee Ashcroft free-kick, Ricky Mercer finished off a neat four-man passing move and David Foster beat a defender, shimmied left and right and slotted the ball home.

Almost inevitably Town could not maintain their absolute dominance in the second half, but the defence then demonstrated their worth with strong tackles and clearance work from Russ McKenna, Nigel Taylor and in particular from Dave Woodruffe.

On 68 minutes a rare lapse allowed Anthony Buckle to receive a cross in space to blast the ball past keeper Ryan Robinson who otherwise deputised well for the injured Mark Thornley.

With time running out Kendal substitute Chris Bennett cut into the visitors penalty area and went down under a challenge, Ashcroft smashing the spot kick into the right hand corner of the goal to seal the points.