LEADING scorer Jamie Close's 15th goal of the season was enough to separate the two sides at Farsley's Throstle Nest ground.

It was a truly disciplined performance of solid defending and commitment across the park which saw Peter Smith's men extend their unbeaten run to nine games, a run which has seen them emerge as serious play-off contenders.

With the benefit of a strong wind behind them in the first period, the hosts might have taken a seventh minute lead, but Michael Midwood dragged his shot wide of target after his much-travelled strike partner Ian Blackstone had outjumped Town full-back Lee Pennington to play him in.

Kendal winger James Sheppard, who has been a steady influence since his return from injury, jinked his down the left flank on 16 minutes and after successfully reaching the bye-line maintained his composure to deliver a well-measured pass which found leading scorer Jamie Close.

His powerful drive looked destined for the back of the net until Celtic keeper Phil Straker intervened with a fine reflex save.

From the resulting corner the ball fell invitingly for Sheppard on the edge of the area and he was unfortunate as his dipping effort just cleared the bar.

On 29 minutes it was Straker who again stood between Kendal and an opening goal, pulling off another fine save to keep out Close's dangerously curling 25-yard drive.

With the first period drawing to a close there was still time for both sides to create good goalscoring opportunities.

Farsley striker Midwood fired wide of Lee Ward's goal with the keeper at full stretch and Kendal's Gary Prosser's deep run into the box was ended by a timely tackle from home captain Chris Stabb.

Kendal came out for the second half hoping to exploit the advantage of the wind better than their opponents had and Lee Blamire's 54th minute speculative effort had Straker back-pedalling as he produced another fine save.

Two minutes later a neat passing move involving Sheppard, David Foster and Prosser nearly produced a quality goal, but Prosser was unable to deliver a telling shot despite having done well to run behind the Farsley defence.

Kendal eventually got the breakthrough they deserved when Straker, who had so frustrated the Town attack, made a hash of a shot from Foster and handed Close the perfect opportunity to stab in his 15th goal of the current campaign.

On 85 minutes, with Farsley pressing forward for an equaliser, the ball was fed to new signing Ben Jones who laid on a pass to sub Stuart Beech, but his rising shot just cleared the bar.

With the clock running down Kendal threatened to grab a second goal when sub Gareth Jones twice used his pace to good effect on the counter-attack, but Straker denied him both times.

Deep into injury time Celtic full-back Steven ball almost salvaged a point for the home team, but Ward came to the rescue with a fine point-blank save to extend Kendal's league and cup unbeaten run to nine matches.

February 7, 2003 09:30