KENDAL Town manager David Foster was left frustrated after seeing his side fail to pick up a point in two away games over the New Year period despite believing they played some of their best football of the season.

On Friday the Mintcakes travelled to Ramsbottom and put in a strong display in the fist half only to slip to a 1-0 defeat as their hosts saw out the second half and seven minutes of injury time with 10 men.

"It was a really frustrating evening," he said. "In the first half we played very well and created several chances and should have been out of sight.

"But they scored from a mistake from us and it took the wind out of our sails. We struggled in the second half, we stopped passing the ball and got outplayed. At worst we should have picked up a point but it's just the run we're on at the moment."

The first game of 2017 on Bank Holiday Monday saw the Mintcakes to travel to Colne where they looked to be on course to victory courtesy of two Sam Bailey goals in the first half. However, Colne hit back in the second half to steal the win with a last-minute strike leaving the scoreline 3-2.

"We had five or six players out with injuries and a lot of lads who haven't played for a while," said Foster. "But the first half was as well as we've played all year. We had chances to kill the game but didn't take them and we were on the end of another strange decision from the referee with the penalty and that completely changes the game.

"Again it was frustrating but I couldn't have asked for any more effort from the lads – it was just a case of small margins being the difference."

Foster was disappointed Kendal couldn't build on their Boxing Day win over Lancaster and feels the Mintcakes could well have taken nine points from the last three games. But despite a lack of luck, he doesn't believe their needs to be wholesale changes to turn fortunes around.

He said: "I don't think there's an awful lot wrong. Teams are punishing our mistakes and we've just got to be more clinical in both boxes but performance-wise our football has been as good as it has all year.

"There's plenty of positives to take and nothing to panic about. We could have had nine points easily – as it is we've got three."

Kendal entertain third-placed Trafford on Saturday in their first home game of 2017.