KENDAL RUFC journeyed to Glossop for a tough game on a cold match day in Derbyshire.

Despite it being a sunny day, the temperature was low and Glossop came into the game with only two home losses this season, both by narrow margins to the top two teams.

On the other hand, Kendal was on a run of two defeats and a draw, and only one away win since Christmas.

Kendal were struggling to get possession, with problems in the lineout, and the scrum in trouble.

When Kendal had the ball, it was kicked away and regularly found Glossop players who just ran the ball back.

For a second week, Kendal's main weapon was the driving maul, which even a burly Glossop pack struggled to tame,

As the half came to an end Kendal made a rare visit to the Glossop half. Dane Blenkharn stole Glossop ball to set up an attack, but from the resulting passing move, Ben Dixon was unable to hold onto possibly his first pass of the game.

Kendal however stayed on attack and at the end of normal time, Glen Weightman broke the defence and whilst stopped was able to get a pass away to Jordan Johnson in support to go over for a try, against the run of play of the half. Chris Park added the conversion: Glossop 0v7 Kendal.

Glossop forced an error on the restart, to get a scrum, but Kendal held out for the three minutes of added time to retain their unlikely lead.

Kendal came more into the game in the second half, but Glossop continued to have more of the ball.

A try looked inevitable from a break down the left wing, but Chris Park, managed to prevent the ball being grounded to give Kendal a goal line drop out to clear the danger.

Finally, after twenty-five minutes Glossop breached the Kendal defence from short range but the conversion failed, so Kendal retained a narrow lead by 5v7.

The score saw Liam Hayton and Alex Ryder come on for Reece Tomlinson and Dane Blenkharn.

The final change with five minutes to play saw Joe Cook come on for Mark Carruthers.

With less than five minutes to play Kendal won a string of penalties and went looking for a try to make the game safe.

On the final one the forwards drove to the line, but the Glossop pack stopped the ball being grounded to win a goal line drop out.

From this they set up an attack which saw an almost length of the field, ending in a try which was converted 7v12.

With only added time to play, Kendal went looking for a late score to snatch victory, but Glossop held out.

Similar disappointment to Billingham about ten years ago, when they snatched victory well into added time, in a game like Glossop they had dominated.

Next week will see Kendal have an early kick off at 1:30pm for Douglas (Isle of Man) the visitors at Mint Bridge, and a good performance being vital, to put pressure on Firwood Waterloo, who have moved into third spot, but have a difficult final game at Manchester, who are ending their season in some style.