SPECTATORS at the Cinder Ovens were treated to an eight-goal thriller on Saturday when Kendal Men entertained their old rivals Springfields in North West League Division 5 (N).

The fun started with less than three minutes on the clock as John Cochrane picked up a pass in the centre circle and found himself with only one defender and the keeper to beat. He scamp-ered up the pitch, leaving his marker well behind, took the ball wide of the keeper and cracked the ball into the open net.

Kendal stayed ahead for 10 minutes before the visitors equalised through a crowded D. With the two teams so familiar with each other, it was always going to be difficult to establish a convincing lead but Kendal went ahead a second time as Jon Elleray finished off a wonderful passing move involving Nick Davis, Rob Bradshaw, Russ Miller and John Cochrane.

Unfortunately, though, the strenuous efforts made by Cochrane in this move left him with a hamstring pull and he had to leave the field.

Springs came back again, this time from a penalty corner to leave the teams all square at half time. Some reshuffling of personnel on both sides brought little difference to the pattern of play in the second half and it continued to be end-to-end stuff.

It was the visitors' turn to take the lead as they took advantage of some poor marking in midfield. This left Kendal a goal down with less than 15 minutes to play.

The Greens' character showed through as they pulled together in a concerted attack on the Springfields goalmouth. Russ Miller was coming more and more into the game and causing the opposing defence problems. His perfectly-timed pass found Jon Elleray in the D and a goal looked certain until Elleray was brought down.

The umpire awarded a penalty corner and Rob Bradshaw despatched the equaliser with typical aplomb.

Minutes later Miller dribbled in to the D and around the keeper only to see his shot stopped by a defender's foot. The umpires consulted and awarded a penalty flick. Steve Barclay coolly placed it to the keeper's left and Kendal were back ahead at 4-3.

The three points would have put Kendal back into second position in the league, but Springfields were not ready to give up on this match yet.

With five minutes to go a shot through a crowded goalmouth produced the fourth equaliser of the match.

Windermere.................3 Lytham St Annes 4th.1 WINDERMERE Men consolidated their lead on goal difference at the top of NW division 8 at the weekend by beating Lytham 4ths 3-1 at Blackpool.

Lytham took an early lead when Windermere failed to clear the danger at a short corner. Several attempted shots were blocked but Lytham eventually scrambled the ball over the line.

The home side then frustrated Windermere by packing their D with bodies to deny the visitors any kind of shooting chance. Midfield anchorman Steve Heyns tried to counter this by dribbling into the crowd until someone stick-tackled or barged him, but the resulting string of short corners he did win proved fruitless until, right on half-time, man-of-the-match Sam Crompton seized on a half-cleared ball to fire Windermere level.

Effective tackling and marking in all areas of the pitch put Lytham under pressure for almost the whole of the second half, but ill luck and some superb goalkeeping restricted Windermere to just two more goals.

Sweeper Mark Kendrick crowned another impressive display by threading a perfect pass to Mike Hodgson, who eagerly scooped the ball past the advancing keeper, and then Kendrick bagged the decisive third goal himself.

After first injecting the ball at a short corner he pounced on Steve Heyns's blocked shot to score at the near post.

Windermere face Bowden 8ths at Troutbeck Bridge tomorrow (Saturday) before starting their midwinter league break.