KENDAL went into this match with the enviable record of being the leading goalscorers in any division from the UniBond League up to the exalted heights of the Premiership.

Within ten minutes they should have added three goals to that tally and by half-time should have been out of sight but football doesn't work like that.

By the end of the match the points could have gone either way as both keepers were forced into making point-blank saves in the dying minutes.

In the first half Kendal's domination was complete. Fluid passing cut Warrington apart time after time as the home side produced the best attacking football seen at Parkside for several seasons.

Sadly the cutting edge was absent.

Three minutes into the match David Foster squandered the first of a succession of excellent cross into the box by Peter Smith, putting the ball too close to the keeper.

On nine minutes Dene-Whittal Willams' header from a corner was blocked on the line and a minute later Foster squared the ball to Kenny Mayers who contrived to push his shot wide.

The pattern continued throughout the half as Kendal won innumerable corners, many thanks to the industry of Smith, who ran left back Christopher Burke ragged.

Foster and Mayers hit a succession of shots over, wide and anywhere but into the net.

Seconds before half-time Kendal were denied by a harsh offside call with Foster through and heading goalwards.

All credit to Warrington though, for they reorganised after the interval, got men behind the ball and disrupted Kendal's gameplan.

Half chances still fell to Foster, Mayers and Lee Ashcroft, but as Kendal pressed for the win they deserved, counter-attacks forced keeper Mark Thornley to make several smart saves.

With ten minutes to go manager Tony Hesketh brought on Michael Jack and James Sheppard for the tiring Foster and left back Paul Rigby, who had played a constructive game both in defence and attack.

With five minutes to go Warrington almost stole it when they got behind the defence, but Thornley proved his worth, hurling himself between ball and goal to block a point-blank shot.

Play swung to the other end and a ball over the top fell to Mayers on the edge of the six-yard box. This time it was the turn of Warrington's Colin Flood to make a point saving block.

How they rated: Thornley 8; Rigby 8 (Sheppard 6 from 80 minutes), Whittal-Williams 7, Taylor 7, Burrow 7; Mercer 7, Woodruffe 7, Smith 8, Ashcroft 6, Foster 7 (Jack 6 from 80 minutes), Mayers 7.