Kendal Town 2

Pontefract Collieries 3

THE recent good run came to an end for Kendal Town as they suffered an agonising 3-2 home defeat to Pontefract Collieries on Saturday.

But there were still plenty of positives to take from a game in which they pushed the promotion chasing visitors all the way only for defensive slackness which saw them give away three first half goals prove to be their undoing.

The Mintcakes were 3-1 down at the break but Kieran Maguire’s wonder strike 10 minutes into second half gave them hope and it was the Colls who were holding on at the end as Town narrowly failed to rescue a point.

Pontefract made a strong start to the game and were one up on 4 minutes when Joe Lumsdon got inside the defence before toe-poking the ball home from close range.

But Kendal showed some of their new found resilience and equalised 11 minutes later.

Emil Jaaskelainen cut inside the penalty area before deceiving the visiting keeper before calmly placing the ball into the corner of the net.

However, the Colls continued to look dangerous going forward and should have regained the lead, Jameel Ible hitting the cross bar while Lumsdon fired over.

But Town also had their moments, causing the visitors problems and impressing the home support in a crowd of 145, their highest for some time.

However, the visitors regained the lead on 39 minutes when a ball in to the far post fell to the feet of Connor Smythe who scored from close range.

And Kendal were 3-1 behind just before half time when Gavin Rothery's goalbound effort fell the feet of Lumsdon who blasted tinto the net from close range.

But the Mintcakes were far from finished and were back in it when Maguire, who has been very impressive since his recent signing from Workington, produced an unstoppable effort from distance which flew into the top right hand corner of the net.

Invigorated by the goal, Town pressed for the equaliser and Joseph Dickson missed a glorious chance after he went one on one with the keeper only to see his effort blocked by Pontefract shot stopper Sebastian Malkowski.

Still Kendal continued to probe and at times playing some superb football with Jaaskelainen and Christian Sloan causing problems for the hard pressed visiting defence.

However, Pontefract dug deep and withstood the pressure, and home keeper Morgan Baconhad to be alert to deny Lumsdon his hat trick, the former Carlisle United player making a smart save.

When five minutes of injury time were indicated, Kendal had renewed hope and threw everything at Colls as they searched for the equaliser.

But despite launching the ball forward and peppering the Pontefract goal, they were unable to break through and the visitors held out.

The final whistle was greeted by wild celebrations from the away team, which showed just how far they had been pushed by a Kendal team who will take heart from the performance as they prepare for Saturday's visit to fellow high flyers Marine.