Kendal Town 2, Leek Town 1.

Two goals in 18 minutes and a battling performance throughout went a long way to answering Kendal Town's critics.

The game was just eight minutes old when James Sheppard collected the ball in space mid-way bewteen the halfway line and the Leek penalty area. He looked up, picked his spot and hammered the ball across the goal and out of the reach of the diving keeper.

Ten minutes later recalled striker David Foster bundled the visitor's centre-half off the ball before sliding the second goal home from eight yards.

For the remainder of the half the casual observer might well have thought it was Town who were fourth in the UniBond League First Division and Leek bottom rather than the other way around.

The second half saw Leek making strenuous efforts to get on terms and Town keeper Lee Ward made a tremendous diving save to keep out a shot for almost the same position as from where Sheppard had scored.

In the 67th minute he had no chance, however, when the otherwise solid defence allowed substitute Carl Frost to get behind them. He flipped the ball over Ward then ran round him to collect and slot the ball into the empty net.

For the final ten minutes Town defended desperately, but effectively, to record their first win in 13 games.