Kendal Town boss Chris Humphreys took the positives away from a 5-1 defeat at Penrith - his first since taking charge of the Mintcakes.

Humphreys’ charges were 4-0 down at half time against Penrith, after Max Brown had notched an impressive hat-trick.

Shaun Gardener added to the score in the second period with Emil Jaaskelainen, on an impressive pre-season scoring streak, pulling one back for Town.

It was Kendal’s first defeat of pre-season, but former Shrewsbury and Preston winger Humphreys took the positives from the game and insisted he would rather encounter any problems now, rather than when the season comes around.

He said: “It is what it is. But for me it’s a learning curve based on my squad.

“It’s our third game back so I’m not too fussed if people look at it as two wins and a loss, because for me it means more than that.

“Now we’ve scored seven goals in the last game, two the game before that and one on Saturday. You have to take the positives from things like this and that’s ten goals.

“Emil has scored six goals in three games, and he scored the other night. It’s pre-season but that’s a really big thing.

“There were positives in that game, and they were a very good side. It was a positive for our younger players, and its good to get them used to playing against teams of that calibre.

“Penrith are a good team. They have a lot of players who come from a decent level.

“It’s not great that we lost but I’d rather get those things ironed out in the pre-season so we can move ahead later.

“They’re young, they’re eager. They want to learn.”

Kendal are back in action this week as they face, as they face Longridge in their latest pre-season friendly.

And after Saturday’s defeat, Humphreys touched on some advice from his Preston days, when the Deepdale men lost every pre-season game before going on to win promotion.

He added: “Thursday is going to be another big game against Longridge.

“I know most of their players at Longridge. They have some skilled guys so it’s going to be a big task for us.

“The aim is to learn from Saturday and hopefully we can make amends on the next one.

“I said to the lads on Saturday after the game, when I was with Preston and we were promoted to the championship we lost every pre-season game.

“It’s pre-season for a reason. You get your fitness sorted: you work out your style and you make your plans.

“We have a hell of a lot of new players who haven’t played with each other, and we are a very young team.

“It’s no excuse for what happened, it is what it is. But we have youth on our side, and we need to learn how to play as youths. We’ve got to learn when to pass, when to run and when to not run.”