Footabll - Town draw with league leaders (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Footabll - Town draw with league leaders

11:02pm Saturday 12th March 2005 in Sport By Dennis Aris

Kendal Town 1, North Ferriby United 1.

Town will be disappointed at only taking one point from this uncompromising match between two sides determined to win promotion from the UniBond League First Division.

In the end it was only the brilliance of Ferriby keeper Paul Sharp whio kept the home side at bay as he made a series critical saves in the second half.

The match was peppered with crunching tackles, a clutch of yellow cards and frequent fouls as Ferriby, top of the league and fourth-placed Kendal strove for domination.

In the stop-start match it was the visitors who took the lead on 15 minutes when a long ball cleared the Kendal defence and Carl Fothergill neatly side-footed a lob over onrushing Town keeper Mark Thornley.

Throughout the game Ferriby relied on the offside trap to stifle Kendal attacks, but they came unstuck in the 26th minute when speedy David Foster latched on to a through pas from Kenny Mayers and squared a perfect ball into the box for Lee Ashcroft to tap in the equaliser.

Just before the break Sharp made a superb dive to push Foster's shot onto the post and to safety.

Kendal went on to dominate the second half and Sharp made two more fine saves from Ashcroft while a good attempt by Ricky Mercer was deflected for a corner., but he saved the best until last.

With time running out Town boss Tony Hesketh put full-back Paul McMenemy on as striker in place of the tiring Foster and the gambit nearly paid off.

Peter Smith powered a low in from the bye-line and McMenemy met it firmly just four yards out only for Sharp to somehow fling himself between ball and goal.

Kendal's next match is away to Eastwood Town next Saturday.