Kendal 23-Donaster 35.

FOR FLAIR, Kendal had the clear beating of Doncaster on Saturday, but it was not enough to secure a first victory of the season on home soil in National League 2, writes Richard Daniels.

Doncaster's heavier, well-drilled forwards used their collective force as a battering-ram down the middle, while Kendal were most effective when moving the ball wide.

So while the visitors created fewer clear-cut chances, they retained the ball better to gain steady territorial advantage and overall it told its story on the scoreboard.

Fortune favoured Kendal early on as they survived a three-to-one overlap and a missed penalty attempt.

Instead a counter-attack after 12 minutes enabled Kendal to open the scoring against the run of play.

As Doncaster moved the ball out, Duncan Rose forced a handling error and left wing Martin Armstrong picked up to release centre Ian Voortman.

He showed great determination to go for the outside on the left wing and accelerated clear for a stunning 60-metre run to cross the tryline without a hand laid on him.

Mike Scott could not add the conversion but it was a heartening start.

Doncaster showed a knack of responding every time Kendal scored and three minutes later full back Jon Liley put over a penalty for offside from in front of the posts.

Straight away Kendal were on the back foot again in their own 22 after the referee missed a Donaster forward in an offside position carry the ball back to his own men and they kicked upfield.

Quick ball following a catch and drive at a lineout led to right winger Matt Walker diving over from close range for an unconverted try and an 8-5 lead.

Although Kendal inter-linked several times, it was from too deep to threaten, but Scott's kick to within eight metres led to good pressure before Scott's successful penalty kick for punching.

Full back Steve Healey was replaced temporarily by Paul Dodds while he had treatment for a head wound, and Doncaster came back strongly and centre Alistaire Sherlock took advantage of non-existent cover tackling to spurt through for Doncaster's second try.

Rob Liley, taking over the kick duties from his brother Jon, converted to extend the visitors' lead to 15-8.

Kendal could not afford to waste openings but Mark Bowman's good run was carried on by Balmer only for Armstrong to knock-on the pass.

Instead Liley added a penalty before the break when Kendal scrum-half Dumile Jijane was sinbinned for deliberately pulling down a maul.

Turning round 18-8 down, Kendal promisingly scored five minutes into the second half with the best move of the match.From a well-taken penalty lineout, Kendal set up a patient driving maul until Duncan Rose - deputising for Jijana at scrum-half - flung out a long pass to reach Voortman.

He cut through the defence before popping the ball up to Healey, whose superbly-angled run took him clear to score close to the posts.

When Scott tacked on the extras, the deficit was down to three points.

After Kendal struggled to clear in defence, there was a let-off when Liley was successful with only one of three straight-forward penalty awards in a testing five-minute spell.

He made amends in the 62nd minute, when he scored a try following a lineout just outside the 22, and then added the conversion to stretch the gap between the sides to 13 points.

Another great run from Voortman had looked worthy of a try shortly before, but he faltered looking for support and the chance disappeared and this was probably the turning-point for Kendal.

Scott did claw three points back when Doncaster were penalised but they were left a man down when Healey was yellow-carded for deliberately coming in at the side at a ruck.

Doncaster mauled their way close again and scored soon afterwards when Chris Conway found a gap to go over by the posts for a converted try that left Kendal 35-18 adrift with five minutes of normal time left.

Three minutes into stoppage time, Kendal gained a belated score when Voortman's break set up Dodds to chip over the top for winger Jason Balmer to chase.

When he was obstructed, the referee gave the penalty where the ball had dropped and Kendal mauled their way over with skipper Adrian Bateson touching down for an unconverted try.