A Win is A Win

The only change from the Birkenhead Park squad, saw Glenn Chesher returning on the bench, with Chris Park dropping out. James Gough moved to scrum half, with Dini Noyo going back to the wing, and Brett Ashley moving to the bench.

The two sides could not agree whether the main pitch was fit, with Kirkby wanting the game postponed, so it was moved to the 3G pitch. The kick off was delayed as the teams had to wait for the earlier game on the 3G pitch, between the two clubs second teams to finish, with the Kendal Development team taking first blood, with a good victory, to avenge their away defeat earlier in the season .

Kendal made a poor start, failing to gather the Kirkby kick off, then giving away a penalty for a high tackle, but had a let off as the kick failed to hit the target.

Kendal came back into the game, but handling errors were causing problems for both teams.

Kirkby opened the scoring after a quarter of an hour, with a penalty after Kendal had been penalised for a ruck offence. 0v3

Kendal were giving away a string of penalties, and captain Dom Musetti was issued with a warning from the referee, that if it continued further action would be taken.

There was a worry for Kendal when the referee stopped play for an injury to Dini Noyo, but after a long period of treatment he was able to continue, and the game restarted with a scrum to Kirkby.

For a second week Kendal were choosing to frequently kick for position, rather than keep the ball in hand, but Kirkby were dealing easily with the kicks and setting up counter attacks. It was however a kick which finally opened up the Kirkby defence at the end of normal time.

There was a loose Kirkby kick out of defence, which was gathered by Glen Weightman, who launched a very high kick of his own. This gave time for the kick to be chased, and when Kirkby failed to deal with it, Kendal hooker Jacob Sutton gathered the ball and made a good break, before offloading to Dini Noyo, who still had plenty to do, but managed to get over for the first try of the game. 5v3

Kendal stepped up a gear, and their faster play keeping ball in hand, suddenly had Kirkby stretched and when they gave away a penalty, Glen Weightman put it over with the last action of the half, to give Kendal an unlikely 8v3 lead.

Early in the second half, Kendal made a tactical change, bringing Glenn Chesher on for Duncan Green, but then lost two players to injury, with first Glen Weightman being forced off with Brett Ashley coming on in the centre and Mike Fearon moving to outside half. Then Chris Downham, who was having another rampaging game, went off to be replaced by Alistair Thompson.

Kendal were on the attack when Gareth Gore was penalised for an off the ball incident, and Kirkby were reduced to fourteen men as he was also yellow carded.

Kendal initially took advantage of this, but when they conceded a penalty, Kirkby went on an attack of their own, and Kendal were forced into a long period of defending on their own line.

Poor options and more poor kicking, kept Kendal in defence, but Kirkby also could not find any way through, with several good overlaps wasted, as players chose to go for the line themselves, only to get dragged down, instead of using better placed players outside them.

With time running out, Kendal stepped up several gears as a number of Kirkby players seemed to be struggling with cramp on the 3G pitch. The Kendal forwards set up an excellent long drive to the line, which seemed to be about to add a match winning try, only for the referee to spot a knock on, to give Kirkby a scrum.

Kendal stayed on the attack, and when awarded a penalty, Nathan Wooff made no mistake, to open up a two score lead, with the game moving into added time.

Instead of gathering the kick off and trying to run the clock down, another loose Kendal kick, gave Kirkby back the ball, and they put the ball through numerous phases, without making much impact.

Four minutes into injury time, a Kirkby player found a gap in the Kendal defence and sprinted in for a try under the posts, which was converted to narrow the gap to a point, with the referee decided there was still time to play on. 11v10.

The Kendal kick off was put straight into touch, to give Kirkby a scrum on halfway, and again they kept the ball through numerous phases, but could find no way through, and finally after ten minutes of injury time, a Kirkby error ended play.

For a second week, Kendal ended a game hanging on, after having seemed to have a match winning lead, but this time it had been a much more even game, against a better opponent, but both teams will want to cut out the errors, to climb the table in the New Year.

Your Website KENDAL MAN OF THE MATCH : Jacob Sutton
For a second week - again having had a key role in setting up a vital try.
Last week it was clear cut, but this time there was plenty of competition with Dini Noyo, Liam Hayton and Dom Musetti all just one vote behind, whilst another nine were a further vote back.