Kendal Town 4
Brighouse Town 2
A MAGNIFICENT fightback saw Kendal Town recover from a two goal deficit to see off visitors Brighouse Town and clinch a second successive victory.
The Mintcakes showed tenacity and fighting spirit as well as no little quality to clinch a victory which sees them climb to 14th place in the Betfair League table and put some clear daylight between themselves and the relegation zone.
Emil Jaaskelainen had opened their account before Brighouse were reduced to 10 men when Kurt Harris was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Christian Sloan just before half time.
Boss Steve Edmondson had last week spoken of his side's renewed belief, and that certainly showed itself as a Sloan strike and a Joe Dickson double saw them storm back to claim a deserved victory.
It was some turnaround for Town after Brighouse had dominated the early exchanges and taken the lead on 11 minutes when Joe Jagger stroked the ball home after collecting a through ball from Luke Rawson.
And the gloom began to descend over Parkside Road when Shiraz Kahn scored a stunning goal to double the visitors' advantage.
But that two goal lead lasted just two minutes when a neat Town move ended with Jaaskelainen slotting into the bottom right hand corner from close range.
Buoyed by that, Kendal pressed for the equaliser with Dickson firing wide and Jaaskelainen blazing over.
Brighouse held on but seconds before the break, they were a man down when Harris was given his marching orders by referee Ian Gittins.
However, while Town had the one man advantage going into the second half, they struggled to make inroads against a determined visiting defence.
But to their credit, the Mintcakes kept plugging away and finally made their one man advantage count on 67 minutes when Dickson headed home.
And with Kendal now on the front foot and the Yorkshire side tiring, they went ahead for the first time five minutes later when a clinical strike by Sloan finished off a well worked attacking move.
Brighouse did not give up and forced a string of corners as they searched for an equaliser.
But it was all in vain as Dickson rolled the ball home on 83 minutes to make it 4-2 and seal a rousing victory.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here