NEVER-say-die Kendal Town netted a 92nd- minute winner to complete an amazing comeback against Radcliffe Borough in the United United Co-operatives Lancashire Cup, writes Dennis Aris.

Town found themselves trailing 2-0 after just 14 minutes, on Tuesday evening, and they were unable to prevent their Premier Division opponents pulling rank and dominating the first half.

Then came the fight- back. Although nowhere near at their best, Town conjured up two goals and showed resilience and determination to go for the winner instead of settling for a draw.

Team changes, with new -signing Owen Roberts (from Clitheroe) making his debut at left back and John Osborne preferred to Peter Smith on the left wing may have initially upset the balance in Town's usually reliable defence, for in the fifth minute they backed off and allowed Rod Thornley to run across the edge of the Kendal box.

He then neatly worked himself into space to fire the ball into the top right corner of the net.

In the 15th minute the back four were caught fiddling around with the ball, failed to clear and were punished when Steve Foster robbed Dene Whittall-Williams before turning and shooting Radcliffe into a 2-0 lead.

With Town seemingly unable to construct anything from midfield, it looked as if Radcliffe's incisive forwards would run away with the cup-tie.

But the visitors eased back on the the throttle, perhaps over-confident that they could soak up Kendal's over-played and often inaccurate long-ball game.

To prove them wrong in the 55th minute John Osborne neatly knocked down Lee Ashcroft's diagonal ball into the box for striker David Foster to ram home his first real chance of the evening.

Although Town were now beginning to stretch the defence and had one good shout for a penalty for hand-ball turned down, an equaliser was still looking rather unlikely.

Then manager Tony Hesketh made a timely double substitution. Wily Peter Smith replaced Osborne and Roberts was removed to make way for Chris Ward as an extra striker. The ploy reaped almost immediate divi-dends - appropriate for the Co-op Cup.

As Peter Smith began to stretch Radcliffe's defence on the right, he crucially won an 81st-minute free-kick.

Ged Smith delivered it into the heart of thepenalty box and Ward rose to head in from six yards For the remainder of the game Town looked the bigger threat and Radcliffe keeper Danny Hurst twice kept his side in it with last-ditch saves off his feet.

Whittal-Williams headed narrowly over from a corner and a shot by Ward was deflected wide after a fine approach run and pass from Ged Smith. Then in the last minute Town reaped the reward of their efforts as Russell McKenna forced the winner in from a goalmouth scramble.

How they rated: Salisbury 7; Sparrow 7, Whittal-Williams 7, Taylor 6, Roberts 7 (Ward 7 from 80 minutes) ; Osborne 7 (P. Smith 7 from 80 minutes), Kilford 8, McKenna 7, G. Smith 7, Ashcroft 7, Foster 7.