AFTER recording only their fourth clean sheet in the league this season, boss Dave Foster believes an on-song Kendal Town struck all the right chords defensively against Salford City.

With Kevin Brown nursing an injury, Foster pitched skipper Warren Beattie at the heart of the Mintcakes’ backline alongside the impressive Ricky Mercer.

And Foster was also eager to highlight the contribution of goalkeeper Danny MacDonald, who backed up his crucial save last week at Farsley with his first shut-out in Kendal colours.

“Warren and Ricky were both absolutely outstanding – I knew from my time playing with Warren that he has played centre-half before,” he said.

“Salford’s front two can be lively but I thought we marshalled their strikers well and in the end they had very little joy up there.

“Danny has had virtually nothing to do all game but he made a very important save as if it went to 2-1 you starting thinking whether it might be one of those finales again.

“But that’s his job and what he is there to do. He’s starting to come into some good form after a difficult and patchy start to life at the club.

“He is beginning to get more confidence and is starting to show what a good keeper he is.”

While Danny Mitchley’s late penalty miss failed to de-rail Kendal’s charge towards back-to-back victories, the statistic of six missed penalties from the last nine makes unpleasant reading.

But despite this proving a mild irritant to Foster, the quality of Kendal’s first-half performance was a source of greater satisfaction.

“I’m sure I had a conversation a while ago about who should and who shouldn’t be taking spot-kicks but it seems sometimes they listen to me and sometimes they don’t,” he added.

“We certainly need to be more clinical from 12 yards as it seems to be a bit of a problem for us, but Danny has found the net 22 times for us so I’ll maybe forgive him.

“Saturday was a very strong performance and we got the basics right again, continuing where we left off at Farsley. We were particularly good first-half, perhaps less so second.

“It’s important to start games well, we pressed the ball quickly and when you score early doors it settles you down and I thought we were pretty comfortable.

“We had opportunities to extend the lead but at times we just didn’t take enough care and were a bit lazy with passing, but all in all it was a good overall team performance.”

And with upcoming fixtures against struggling Prescot Cables and Padiham, Foster is in no rush to surrender Kendal’s recent resurgence in form.

“I looked at these three fixtures, including Salford, and laid down the challenge of three wins to keep this little run going,” he added.

“Ending the season with some momentum is important as it’s all about confidence. Teams won’t be looking forward to playing us and we want some scalps before the end of the campaign.”