After the good win against Stoke last weekend, the team came into the game knowing a win could lift them to seventh in the table, but it was going to be tough challenge as visitors Manchester, despite being in fifth place in the table, had only lost once, and that was to unbeaten second place Anselmians.

Changes to the team saw Luke Atkinson return from injury to replace Devin Coyle at fullback, whilst in a late change Jordan Johnson came in on the right wing for Mark Carruthers who had been due to replace the injured Dini Noyo. Aaron Sawu came in on the bench for his club debut.

Kendal made a good started and it looked as if Dan Shorrock had opened the scoring when he crossed the line in the corner, but referee Ricky Handa spotted a knock on as Shorrock tried to ground the ball and ruled the try out.

Kendal had another good chance, but it was Manchester who opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a try after good passing, with the conversion added 0v7

Manchester started to take control and Kendal were getting little ball and faced a solid defence when they did, and when the ball was lost the Manchester outside half put some excellent kicks downfield to put Kendal back under pressure.

Manchester added a second try after a quarter of an hour with good passing before a gap opened in the Kendal defence. The difficult conversion came back off the post. 0v12.

This remained the score at half time, but Manchester had the upper hand. Kendal made an early change bringing on Steven Nelson and Aaron Sawu for Patrick Wostenholme and Glenn Chesher.

Kendal needed an early score in the second half to get back in touch, but instead it was Manchester who opened the scoring after four minutes. A poor Kendal kick out of defence, was run back resulting in a penalty which was run and some poor tackling resulted in a converted try. 0v19

Manchester quickly added a fourth try for a bonus point, helped by more missed tackles. 0v26

Matt Houghton was forced off and replaced by Joe Anderson, but was soon back, replacing Charlie Lowther.

Manchester added a fifth try with ten minutes to play 0v33.

Finally Kendal got some reward with a break down the right and when the ball came across field there was a knock on to prevent the final pass reaching its target. Mr Handa decided it was deliberate and awarded a Penalty try, and yellow carded the Manchester scrum half 7v33.

It looked as if Kendal had a second score when Ben Dixon broke away down the right, but a Manchester player got back to stop him.

So the string of Try Scoring Bonus points was ended.

Probably the team’s poorest performance of the season, not helped by injuries to backs, several of whom appeared to be playing on due to lack of cover on the bench.

Whilst Manchester will probably not press Rossendale, Anselmians, or Blackburn for a top three spot, they are a well organised team both in attack and defence and will be hard to beat (only Anselmians had conceded fewer points), and will be looking for a top six finish.

Next week a trip to bottom place Birkenhead Park, a ground Kendal teams have regularly struggled on, whether their opponents are on the way up or down.

All three senior teams are due to be in action there, so look out for details of Kick off times.

IMPORTANT FIXTURE SWITCH

The next home game against Stockport on the 9th November has been switched to Stockport, due to the Community Fireworks, so the next First XV game at Mint Bridge is now against Penrith on the 30th November.

The Home game against Stockport will instead take place on 15th February, the middle of three games at Mint Bridge, but with free weekends between each of them.

MAN OF THE MATCH

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ACTION

TEAMS :

In a late change Jordan Johnson, came in on the right wing to replace Mark Carruthers (who had replaced the injured Dini Noyo)

OTHER RESULTS

TABLE

Anselmians drop a point for the first time this season, and Leek pick up a second bonus point

Stokes big win against our opponents next week, see then go above us (they have conceded 25 points less but otherwise the records are identical).

SUNDAY

WASPS
1.00pm kick off against second place Sefton.

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SENIOR COLTS
Take on Widnes at Mint Bridge at 3.00pm on Sunday (after the Wasps game)

Both teams are struggling a bit with one win from four so it could be a good contest

An odd table with four of the seven having one win from four, and the other three having three wins from four. So it could be they have both faced the strongest teams first.

SPOT THE ERROR

The totally undeliberate "spot the error" competition in the programme was again won by Dr Stephen Green

The team played at Windermere a few seasons ago was Moortown

For anyone wondering where Moorville is - It is the area on Scotland Road, North of Carlisle where the Morrison's supermarket is. Again as far as I know they don't have a rugby team.