Costly mistakes

Kendal’s injury and unavailability problems continued, with the only change to the squad from last weekend seeing Alex Ryder replacing Joe Lashley on the bench. There was a minor re-organisation with Liam Hayton starting, Barney Coxon moving to the back row and Dane Blenkharn moving on to the bench.

Visitors Lymm came into the game in third place with five wins from six games, with their only loss coming against leaders Blackburn, and they had had a number of big scores, including 90 points against Burnage last weekend.

Lymm dominated the early exchanges and opened the scoring with a converted try after nine minutes, from a lineout. In a clearly well planned move the ball was moved straight back to a man on the touchline to go through for the score. 0v7.

Lymm continued to dominate and their lead was extended after eighteen minutes. From a lineout following a penalty, the ball was moved right and some missed tackles saw an unconverted try. 0v12.

Kendal came back into the game and made a number of breaks down the right touchline. When the ball was moved wide, all the good work was undone, when a Lymm player read the pass and intercepted and made a long run for a score, despite a good chase from Dan Shorrock. 0v19.

Three minutes later Kendal were back in the game. It started with a bit of good fortune when the referee gave a scrum for a Lymm knock on from the re-start kick, despite the ball appearing to have gone backwards.

Steven Nelson playing in the centre, but carrying an injury, moved to No.8 and after not breaking through from the scrum, once the ball had been recycled a few times, he was on hand for the touchdown. Dan Lowther added the conversion. 7v19.

Shortly afterwards Nelson was forced off, with Dane Blenkharn coming on and Alistair Thompson taking Nelson’s place in the centre.

Just before half time Kendal, somewhat against the run of play, were back to within a score. There were some good breaks down the right touchline, and when the ball was moved left, Dan Lowther broke through and strolled over for the try, which he converted himself. 14v19 at half time.

Lymm started the second half well, winning the ball back from their own restart kick. They stayed on the attack and when awarded a penalty put the kick over to extend their lead beyond a single score 14v22.

Kendal came back, and Alistair Thompson made a long run out of defence, but unfortunately failed to spot Dan Shorrock, who had done well to get in support.

Then the Kendal forwards battered the Lymm line, but made no progress whilst there were gaps out wide, with two forwards defending the right wing.

Kendal were punished for missing the opportunities, as Lymm showed how it could be done with a break out of defence and a run through the centre for another converted try 14v29

Kendal made another change with Alex Ryder coming on for Liam Hayton.

Ryder was immediately in action gathering a loose ball from the re-start and making ground,

Lymm added a fifth try following a break down the right after a penalty. 14v36

Steven Nelson returned in place of Dan Greenwood.

Kendal returned to the attack, with Dane Blenkharn and Nick Carlton making breaks only to slip and lose momentum. Barney Coxon made ground and linked with Nick Carlton, who was stopped with a high tackle, which saw a Lymm player yellow carded.

Kendal lost the resulting lineout, but Jordan Johnson then managed to keep the clearance kick in near halfway, to set up a counter attack. Nick Carlton made a long break, and Mckenzie Cousins finished with his second try in two games, to put Kendal in sight of a try scoring bonus point. 19v36

Mattie Kaye replaced Jordan Johnson and Dan Greenwood returned in place of Reece Tomlinson.

Lymm added two tries before the end.

First a break through the centre, lead to the sixth try 19v43

Then with Kendal still looking for an extra score, a quickly taken drop out backfired, as the ball was run back for a try 19v50.

Lymm looked, as their League position suggests, a very good well organised team, especially in attack, where good support play meant they took their chances when gaps appeared

With the number of Kendal first choice players unavailable, and the quality of opposition, this was not a bad score line, but could and should have been a lot better.

The major concern is still the lineout, where over complicated moves seem to play into the oppositions hands (it sometimes seems they understand our lineout calls better than we do ourselves). Also too often players undo their good work by failing to then pass to players in support, which just gives the opposition defence time to re-group.

Positives were the continued hard work of Alistair Thompson, whilst Glenn Chesher probably had his best game of the seasons, and Barney Coxon continues to justify his inclusion, winning a number of penalties. With so many backs out, it is a major bonus to have Nick Carlton available, and he looked a danger every time he got the ball..

After a few dodgy refereeing performances, this one was back to the higher standards of early in the season, which helped make the game more entertaining.

The good news is Ben Dixon (and hopefully others) is close to a return, but the bad news is Lewis Kincart has again decided to move on, this time to leaders Blackburn. Hopefully like last time he will be back again, as the team needs quality players.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Alistair Thompson

Another excellent performance in attack and defense, starting in the back row then moving into the centre. saw him pick up over a third of the votes.

A little way back was Glenn Chesher, whilst just behind him was Dan Greenwood, with another seven picking up at least one vote.

OTHER RESULTS

TABLE

Blackburn's win against Manchester keeps them ahead, whilst Sandbach's defeat of Rossendale sees Lymm go second.

As expected Macclesfield (who we visit next weekend) got the points at Burnage to go above us