Football – Kendal Town 1, Stocksbridge Park Steels 1 (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Football – Kendal Town 1, Stocksbridge Park Steels 1

9:31pm Sunday 19th March 2006 in Sport By Dennis Aris

DAVID Foster and Chris Ward combined to give Kendal the lead just 41 seconds after the kick-off of this UniBond League First Division match and Town's domination was such that they should have been out of sight by half-time.

Yet once again a faltering second half performance let the visitors off the hook and a 67th minute equaliser saw the home side drop two valuable points in their quest for automatic promotion to the Premier Division.

Manager Tony Hesketh took the bold decision to leave right wingers Peter Smith and John Osborne on the bench and play David Foster wide on the right to effectively create a three-man strike force with Chris Ward and Lee Ashcroft.

Initially it worked like a charm as the speedy Foster raced away down the right from the kick-off and squared the ball the Ward who finished neatly to the keeper's left.

Three minutes later a carbon copy cross by Foster should have been put away by Ashcroft, but he scooped the ball over the bar from four yards.

It set the pattern for a half of continual Kendal pressure with numerous shots and headers either just wide of target or deflected away for corners by the rattled Stocksbridge defence.

The visitors regrouped at half-time and Town's advantage began to look precarious as keeper James Salisbury was called upon to make two high-quality diving saves.

Then a corner from the left appeared to have been dealt with by the Kendal defence only for Stocksbridge centre back Daniel Anson to collect the loose ball 20 yards out on the right and launch a well-directed shot into the top corner of the net.

Hesketh range the changes, replacing Russ McKenna and Foster with Smith and Osborne. It produced a final 15 minutes of Kendal pressure, but again all attempts were agonisingly wide.

The draw now makes it vital for Town to beat Bamber Bridge at Home on Tuesday evening (kick-0ff 7.45pm) to keep their championship challenge on course.