Kendal Men's first team made the trip to City of Manchester on Saturday with a seriously depleted squad. Injures and other commitments left just 11 players able to travel.

However, the visitors started well and took the game to their hosts. Ten minutes in Kendal took the lead when Phil Conlin drove into the Manchester D, drew his defender and slipped the ball to joint man of the man Noah Ross, whose first-time shot nestled into the bottom corner.

The home side hit back immediately to level the score and then added a second to take into half time.

The hosts started the second half quickly and soon increased their lead. Kendal started to gain some possession and before long Nick Davis pulled The Greens back into the match when he was first to react to a loose ball after a penalty corner.

Unfortunately Manchester immediately got another back.

Kendal pushed forward and their reward came when Davis scored his second from another well-worked penalty corner.

Kendal were denied a penalty shout late on and were left with nothing but the pride from their efforts against the odds.

Final score: City of Manchester Men’s 2s 4 – 3 Kendal Men’s 1s.

For their second match of the weekend Kendal welcomed Liverpool John Moores University to Queen Katherine School. This time they had a more complete squad and from the start looked like the team most up for the game.

Liam Platt found himself one-on-one with the Liverpool keeper and scored and Phil Conlin struck again shortly afterwards .

In the second half Blunt’s through ball found Ross who wrong-footed the goal tender and slotted his reverse-stick finish home.

After a penalty corner Kendal captain Nick Davis’ ghosted in-between several defenders and finished to give Kendal their fourth.

The fifth came from another penalty corner, Simon Millington feeding Conlin, who reverse-stick volleyed the ball against the backboard for his second of the match.

Andrew Melville scored Kendal’s final goal.

Full time: Kendal Men’s 1s 6 – 0 Liverpool John Moores University Men’s 1s.