Kendal Town 2 - Witton Albion 3 (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Kendal Town 2 - Witton Albion 3

8:14am Friday 16th September 2005 in Sport By Dennis Aris

INJURY-hit Kendal Town were edged out of this season's FA Cup as they lost out to Witton Albion by the odd goal in five, at Parkside on Saturday.

Overall it was a gallant effort by Town who forced their UniBond Premier Division opponents to come from behind twice before securing their place in the next round.

In-form striker Lee Ashcroft made an early breakthrough when he side-footed Ged Smith's accurate left wing cross past visiting keeper Jon Kennedy, but the advantage was disappointingly cancelled out three minutes later when Witton's Mark Peers took full advantage of David Woodruffe's under-hit back-pass to level the scores.

Kenny Mayers almost restored Town's lead on 10 minutes with a header that had Kennedy at full stretch.

Mayers found the net shortly afterwards, however, linking up well with Ashcroft.

In what was turning into a typical cup-tie, the visitors again levelled, courtesy of a Ben Jones effort and Albion might have enjoyed a half-time lead had Mike Mosley's neat shot on the turn not taken a slight deflection.

Kendal struggled to be as effective in the second half and after Mosley put his side in front for the first time, Town were always chasing the game.

Kendal had a genuine case for a penalty turned down late on and the afternoon's frustrations got the better of midfielder Ian Kilford, who clashed with Witton substitute Steve Connors in added time and was sent off for a second yellow card.

How they rated: Salisbury 6; Whittal-Williams 6, Sparrow 6, Kilford 6, Rigby (Burrow 6 from 45 minutes) 6; Woodruffe 6, P. Osborne 6, G. Smith 6; Mayers 6, Ashcroft 7.