KENDAL men travelled to Preston hoping to inject some brightness into what has been a dour season as far as results go.

In open play the two teams were well matched. However, Kendal's inability to defend penalty corners cost them dearly.

Preston opened the account after seven minutes with a well-taken goal, but Kendal struck back almost immediately through Phil Conlin.

As Preston pushed to go ahead again, Iain Donaldson made a firm clearance which left Ewan Galloway with a chase to keep the ball in. He caught the ball just before the back line, pulled it back inside his marker and into the D. His reverse- stick shot crept inside the post and made it 2-1 to Kendal.

It was a brief lead as Preston drew level again through a penalty corner two minutes later.

Clever work by Steve Barclay carved out a number of chances for Kendal, but they were thwarted by some solid goalkeeping and their own inaccurate shooting.

The hosts drew ahead with another penalty corner and took a 3-2 lead in to the second half.

Phil Conlin equalised from close range soon after the interval, then Gordon Blunt had a darting run into the home D but pushed his shot wide, and the score remained level until 10 minutes from time when pressure from Preston brought them a penalty corner.

A superbly executed drag flick gave them the advantage again at 4-3.

As over-ambitious passes began to go astray, Preston kept their composure just slightly better and scored a fifth goal, again from a penalty corner, to secure the win with just a few minutes to go.

Confident of victory, Preston finished off with a lovely dribbling rum from their 18-year-old whizz kid, who set up a simple tap- in to make it 6-3 to the ohme side.

Barclay was man of the match for Kendal, who were left pondering their many missed chances.

Their day was made worse by the news that their two closest rivals, West Derby and Springfields, each had wins, leaving Kendal on the bottom of the division for the first time this season.