TEN man Kendal Town lost 1-0 to Atherton Collieries at The ST&B Accountants Stadium on Tuesday night.

Jordan Cover's unstoppable 82nd minute strike sealed the win in a game where Kendal captain Stuart McDonald was sent off for a late challenge.

Kendal went into the game looking to make it three wins on the bounce, and almost made the perfect start when Steven Yawson went clean through on goal but he could only blaze the ball over the bar.

The Morecambe loanee, who will now remain with the Mintcakes for the rest of the season, terrorised the visitors defence on many occasions throughout the first half.

Kendal continued to probe the visitors before Paul Dawson’s speculative effort on goal grazed the cross bar, while Yawson missed another chance after curling his effort wide of the post.

Atherton’s best opportunity fell to Liam O'Neill whose drive on goal was turned round the post by Matthew Johnson.

The visitors built up a spell of pressure for the remainder of the first half, but Kendal defended well and the sides were all square at the break.

Kendal continued to dominate at the start of the second and Yawson again went close but his attempt was parried away for a corner.

Matthew Clarke caused problems on the wing and supplied numerous deliveries into the box that were cleared by the Atherton defence.

But the decisive moment in the game came after 77 minutes when McDonald was shown a straight red card after bringing down Cover who was clean through on goal.

Atherton capitalised on the one man advantage and opened the scoring on 82 minutes after Cover powered his way through the Kendal defence before unleashing a powerful shot into the top right hand corner of the net. Cover did well to retain the ball after getting onto the end of a well worked move.

Atherton saw the closing stages out to pick up the win in a game which Kendal did not deserve to lose.

Kendal entertain bottom of the table Goole on Saturday before travelling to play South Shields on Easter Monday.

Kendal Town line up: 1, Johnson, 2, McGahon, 3, Thomas, 4, Dawson, 5, Clark, 6, McDonald (c), 7, Clarke, 8, Staunton-Turner, 9, Seear, 10, Carroll, 11, Yawson.

Substitutes: 12, Buchan, 14, Davies, 15, Penswick, 16, Wraighte, 17, Nichols (GK)