KENDAL Town began their pre-season campaign with a comfortable 4-1 victory against Furness Rovers at The St&B Accountants Stadium.

Charlie Bowman’s brace and goals by new signing Aaron Fleming and Brad Carroll secured a routine win against a spirited team who ply their trade in West Lancashire League Division Two.

Kendal fielded a strong team, with skipper Stuart McDonald, Gavin Clark, Matthew Clarke, Martin Grundy, Bowman, Danny McGahon, Carroll and debutant Fleming all in the starting line up, while Ben Thomas was on the bench.

The Mintcakes also had a raft of other players within their team, which included two new goalkeepers.

Kendal dominated possession from start, while Bowman and McGahon both missed good opportunities to score.

But Kendal opened the scoring on 26 minutes when a corner in from the left was headed into the net by Fleming.

Kendal doubled their lead three minutes later after a well worked move saw Carroll fire the ball into the net after he was played clean through on goal.

However, Furness to their credit battled back after poor defensive work down the right hand side gave Ryan Fagan time and space to place the ball into the bottom left hand corner.

Kendal restored their advantage with six minutes to go before half time when Bowman capitalised on a mistake by the keeper before tapping the ball home from close range.

The second half proved to be disjointed with David Foster making a number of changes to the team, but Kendal were always dominant while Bowman scored his second and Kendal's fourth goal after the frontman finished from close range.

Kendal did create further opportunities but the game fizzled out as Kendal ran out 4-1 winners.

The Mintcakes' next home friendly is scheduled to be against Blackburn Rovers Under 23s on Tuesday 31 July. However, with the recent hot weather the game could be in doubt unless there is a heavy downpour of rain between now and the end of the month.