INJURY-hit Kendal survived a second-half scare from newly-promoted New Brighton to edge a narrow win at Mint Bridge - extending their winning streak to five games.

The Black and Ambers raced to a 26-3 half-time lead but the Wirral-based club ate away at the deficit with two converted tries as Kendal held on to maintain their unbeaten start to the season.

Kendal were forced to re-arrange their team, with a number of key players out with injuries sustained in the excellent victory at Penrith last weekend.

Matty Kaye and Jordan Johnson came in for James Gough and Leo Mercer, whilst Glen Weightman made his first start at outside half in place of Bob Mataia and up front Josh Chaplow came in for Chris Downham.

Kendal dominated the opening exchanges and took just three minutes to open the scoring.

The Kendal pack drove the large New Brighton pack off their own ball. The ball quickly was spread wide with Mark Carruthers breaking through.

Liam Hayton and Duncan Green took the ball on and the forwards drove over the line for Blake Robinson to emerge with the ball. Weightman put over the conversion to give Kendal the perfect start.

Things for even better when Weightman extended the lead with two penalties but New Brighton got their first score on the board through a penalty of their own.

Weightman slotted over his third penalty before Kendal added a second try.

From a lineout, the ball was moved into midfield where Hayton broke the defence, opening space for Lowther, who scythed through the New Brighton defence for an excellent solo try which was converted by Weightman.

Before half time Weightman added his fourth penalty to give Kendal a commanding lead at the break.

With the strong wind on their backs, New Brighton immediately set out to get back into the game.

Their winger broke a number of tackles to put Kendal back defending on their own line.

While New Brighton were prevented from crossing the try line, the Kendal pack could not make any impact on the resulting scrum and the ball was moved to the left hand touchline for a converted try.

After quarter of an hour of play New Brighton narrowed the gap further to 26 - 13 with a penalty before Kendal conceded in time added on.

When they offended at a scrum, the away side quickly ran the ball to set up a move which eventually saw their centre crash over in the third minute of injury time for a converted try which brought them to within a score of Kendal.

The referee played on and Kendal had to withstand more pressure but they held on for a hard-fought win.