For Kendal, Glen Weightman was back, but Dan Shorrock was missing, with Jordan Johnson coming in on the wing, whilst Chris Park was on the bench for his first appearance of the season.

Kendal could not have had a much worse start. The Wirral kick off was not gathered, which put them on the attack, then a number of poor missed tackles saw centre Jacob Mitchell open the scoring after less than two minutes, then convert his own try. 7v0.

Kendal came more into the game, and Wirral were forced to concede a number of penalties, but several opportunities were lost when lineout throws were stolen (maybe not entirely legally) by Wirral.

Barney Coxon was having another promising game, twice forcing penalties as tackled Wirral players hung on to the ball, as he tried to steal it.

Wirral’s second try came after twenty minutes. Their forwards made ground through a number of short bursts, then the ball was kicked to the corner for left wing Tom Akehurst to chase and score. 12v0.

Kendal were back in game almost immediately. Ignacio Cisint made a powerful break down the left, he passed to Lewis Kincart, who seemed to have run into trouble, but then got the ball away to Danny Barker who powered over. 12v5

As Kendal came more into the game, Wirral were being forced to give away a string of penalties to slow the ball down, and appeared fortunate the referee did not take further action, when in one move he signal three separate penalties to Kendal.

With time running out in the first half the scores were tied. Lewis Kincart took a penalty quickly, and Steven Nelson was on hand to power over for his sixth try of the season, with Glen Weightman adding the conversion. 12v12

All the good work was almost immediately undone. From a scrum in their own twenty two, not for the first time, a Kendal box kick made little distance, and went to Wirral hands. Wing Tom Akehurst, took advantage of the Kendal defence being out of place to go over for his second try. 17v12.

At half time Robbie Collinson came on for Dan Reid.

Early in the second half Kendal were on the attack, only to be penalised when someone spoke out to the referee.

After seven minutes Kendal were temporarily reduce to fourteen men when Joe Lashley was yellow carded, but after Wirral’s kick at goal from the resulting penalty was unsuccessful, it was Kendal who came back the stronger.

Danny Barker made a powerful break from halfway, evading several attempted tackles, Alistair Thompson took the move on, and Dini Noyo was on hand to finish it with his fifth try of the season, and the scores were back level with half an hour to play 17v17.

Dan Reid returned in place of Joe Anderson

After twenty minutes Kendal appeared to have won a scrum, by preventing a tackled Wirral player, getting the ball to ground, only for someone to speak out, and it became a Wirral penalty, that outside half Dan Harvey put over to give his team the lead which they would not lose again. 20v17.

The score saw Chris Park come on on the wing for Jordan Johnson, whilst Dan Greenwood came on for Barney Coxon.

The lead was extended after twenty five minutes when following a penalty, Wirral fullback Mark Williams went over for a converted try 27v17 (the Wirral announcer was having difficulty with his maths giving the score as 22 after the try, then 28 after the conversion – but did correct himself).

After half an hour, play was stopped for an injury to Reece Tomlinson, and he was forced off with Barney Coxon returning. Shortly afterwards Joe Anderson returned in place of Dan Reid.

With five minutes to play both teams were reduced to fourteen men when both fullbacks were yellow carded after an altercation, and a minute later Kendal were down to thirteen when Joe Anderson, was yellow carded for speaking out to the referee.

From the penalty the Wirral forwards drove over for a try for lock Haydon Long 32v17.

Reece Tomlinson returned late in the game.

The final action of the game saw a sixth try for Wirral 37v17.

Wirral played well, but the reality is despite the score line the two teams were not that far apart. Kendal errors or ill-discipline resulted in the first, third and fifth tries, plus the penalty, whilst good attacking opportunities were lost through failing to secure lineout ball – or just taking the three points as Wirral did.

The positive was despite being without Dan Shorrock and Ben Dixon, the backs looked sharp on attack (so why kick so much ball straight to the opposition?), whilst Alistair Thompson covered a lot of ground to support them.

A fortnight before the next league game away at Kirkby, but a Cumbria Cup semi-final AWAY at 'unbeaten-in-27-matches' Upper Eden this weekend (Sat 8 Oct), so time for the coaching team to sort out the discipline issues. Too many soft penalties, and speaking out to referees is never a route to success. Saturday’s referee didn’t have the best of afternoons, but if players can make mistakes so can the referee, and telling him about them is never going to go down well in the “making friends and influencing people” stakes.

Also, just because the coaching manuals say you should do something, doesn’t mean it is right for your team. With yet another player having problems putting into the lineout, maybe the “dance of the sugar plum fairies” isn’t for us, and something simpler would get better results (as short throws to Alistair Thompson did). If you have two scrum halves whose kicking game isn’t the best, better leaving it to the man outside them. Kicking was never one of James Gough’s strengths, but he made up for it in many other ways, as Lewis did this weekend, having a hand in a number of scores (and near misses) and putting in a lot of key tackles.

Much to work on, and it is starting to look as if just about anyone can beat anyone else in the league, so when our chances come we need to grab them, to climb the table.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Danny Barker

After an early scare following a hard tackle (looked OK to me, and fortunately not that serious to the referee, but others saw it differently) Danny had an excellent game, scoring the first try, after being in support of others, then did the hardwork for Dini's try in the second half, proving when he is on the move in space he is a very difficult man to put down.

Glen Chesher (as normal) and Alistair Thompson also did well in a select band (about the size of Wirral's support - I think they may have had more on the field!)

OTHER RESULTS

Blackburn	27	7	Lymm
Burnage	38	7	Kirkby Lonsdale
Rossendale	36	27	Northwich
Sandbach	31	14	Manchester
Stockport	29	35	Macclesfield

Blackburn came out top in the top of the table clash, whilst Burnage won the bottom of the table one to close to within a point of us.

TABLE

#	Team	P	W	TB	LB	Pts
1	Blackburn	5	5	5	0	25
2	Rossendale	5	4	5	0	21
3	Sandbach	5	4	4	0	20
4	Lymm	5	4	3	0	19
5	Stockport	5	3	4	1	17
6	Manchester	5	3	4	1	17
7	Wirral	5	3	3	0	15
8	Northwich	5	1	4	1	9
9	Macclesfield	5	1	3	1	8
10	Kendal	5	1	2	1	7
11	Burnage	5	1	1	1	6
12	Kirkby Lonsdale	5	0	0	0	0

Macclesfield win at Stockport sees them go ahead of us, whilst Northwich picked up a try scoring bonus point to extend the gap above us

PHOTO : Craig was at the game, so a rare top quality photo for an away game. See the rest of his album for the game

Postscript
To finish off a “great” afternoon, the M56 back to the M6 was closed for roadworks, so we were recommended to go back via the Mersey Tunnels and through Liverpool. It went well to the other side of the tunnels when I must have taken a wrong turn and instead of taking the M62, I had a magical mystery tour of the city, all the time following signs for “M6 Preston”, and finding out which of the City’s football teams the traffic lights support, as almost every one turned red just as I arrived.

My return trip therefore took an hour longer than the Southbound had.

Match Reporter: Mark Hodgkiss