Kendal Town vs Birtley Town

Recap

A rampant Kendal Town dispatched Birtley 4-0 on Saturday as The Hoops fell to a heavy defeat in Cumbria. 

The Hoops started the game well and dominated the early proceeding. Their best opportunity of the game came on 12 minutes. A long throw-in from from Owen Lancaster was met with a truly superb overhead from Scott Heslop. His effort clipped off the top of the bar with those onlooking applauding a fantastic effort from Birtley number nine. Alfie Gordon made a string of fine saves in the middle of the first period to keep The Mintcakes at bay. Despite the promising start, Birtley seemed to lose a foothold in the game and struggled to maintain possession which allowed Kendal to grow in confidence. 

The deadlock was broken on 34 minutes. Cowperwaithe found Ben Thomas out wide. He delivered to Josh Winder at the far post who played a delightful one-two with James Bailey before smashing the opener into the near post. 

Half-Time – Kendal Town 1-0 Birtley Town 

Birtley faced a difficult task to get themselves back in the game against a strong Kendal side. The Hoops had the first chance of the half as Scott Heslop headed wide from a corner. Final Lynch forced Alfie Gordon into a strong save on 49 minutes as Kendal took full control of the game. Gordon was quick to deny Cowperthwaithe on 52 minutes and The Kendal skipper should of extended their lead on 58 minutes when heading wide a huge chance at the back post. The reprieve was short lived for Birtley as Lynch did score following a cross from Josh Winder. Alfie Gordon was left with no chance following some questionable defending in the build up the goal.  

James Bailey was left unmarked on 69 minutes as he headed home Kendal’s third. winder again  providing the assist from the right wing. Kendal scored their third goal in nine minutes as Ryan Winder drove through the Birtley back line and fired low into the Birtley net 

Full-Time – Kendal Town 4-0 Birtley Town 

Attendance – 299

Player of the Match – Alfie Gordon

Manager’s Corner

Reece Chapman: “Well done to Kendal. The best team over 90-minutes deservedly won the game. I’m frustrated with our performance and endeavour, particularly in the last 30-35 minutes. We started the game fantastically and for the first 15-20 minutes or so we’ve created good chances, put loads of pressure on Kendal and caused them to hurry their play. Hezzy has hit the crossbar from a fantastic overhead kick in that period and on another day we’re ahead in the game. But to be honest that chance looked to kick them into gear. From that point they’ve had the better chances in the first half, scored a good goal and put plenty of pressure on us. Going in at half time we tried to get the lads back to what they did at the start of the game and again we’ve had the first chance of the half, Hezzy just glancing his header past the front post. Dinza came off with an injury – which hurt us and after that it was all Kendal. They were much better than us and we fell well below what is accepted by us all. The lads know that, we know that and we’ve got to put it right sharp.”

H2H vs Kendal Town (all appearances)
P1 W1 D0 L0 GF2 GA0

Next up…

Birtley will host Tow Law Town next Saturday in a huge game at the bottom of Northern league Division One.