Longridge Town vs Kendal Town (Pre-Season Friendly) Match Report

Longridge welcomed Lee Ashcroft’s former club Kendal Town to the Mike Riding Ground in a mouth watering pre-season friendly. Longridge again tested themselves against higher league opposition following recent friendlies - a narrow 3-2 defeat on Thursday against Bamber Bridge and a well earned draw against Nelson a few days earlier.

Longridge played a similar side to the one defeated by Bamber Bridge with two changes to the line up - Josh Draycott got a start in the centre of midfield and Jamie Hastings started at left back.

The game started with a fast pace with lovely play in midfield by both sides. Kendal created the first real chance on the 7th minute with lovely build up play. The ball was back heeled to the striker who tried to sidefoot it into the goal but it went just wide.

Kendal took the lead through a fortuitous goal, a cross in from the right hand side caught out the Longridge number one who misjudged it. The ball came off in the frame of the goal into the path of Mark Jackson who slotted into the empty net.

The home side equalised on the 19th minute; a lovely team goal started by captain Jordan Tucker whose diagonal ball was flicked on by player/manager Ashcroft. His flick-on fell to Jerome Watt who backheeled to Josh Draycott to fire into the goal.

Longridge nearly doubled their lead when a poor clearance from the Kendal keeper fell to Watt whose Beckhamesque attempt from the halfway line nearly caught out the Kendal number one.

Ashcroft then had the chance to score against his former club on the 39th minute. He found himself free in the area with plenty of time but his attempt was well saved by the goalkeeper.

The home side rode their luck on the 38th minute. A Kendal free kick from a dangerous position produced a header that hit the woodwork, then Stu Garry’s clearance hit the bar. A scramble in the box followed before eventually being cleared by Ashcroft.

Kendal did get their second 2 minutes later when another cross was converted at the far post by Jackson.

Although it was Kendal who took the lead Longridge had more of the ball and better chances during the latter stages of the first half and could’ve found themselves on level terms with the best chance falling to Ryan McKenna, who was free in the box but he headed over.

Longridge continued the second half the way they left off with Watt skinning the Kendal right back but his cross was just too high for Ashcroft.

Nine minutes into the second half Longridge equalized. Another fine move with Longridge moving the ball from Tucker to Ashcroft, then to Watt and this time to Hastings whose left foot drive was blocked. From the resulting corner former Kendal Town player Tucker headed home.

The game then became disjointed with both teams bringing on many subs, Kendal trying a lot of trialists and Town testing other players before the manager decides his final squad of 18/19 in a few weeks’ time. Despite this Kendal did have three one-on-one chances but all three were thwarted by the Longridge number one who made up for his early mistake which led to the first goal.

After the match town manager Ashcroft spoke off his pride of the players: ‘When we played teams at this level (speaking of his time with Kendal) we were beating them 4/5/6 nil but we’ve given them a good a game today.’ Ashcroft went on to say what he wants to achieve at the club: ‘I want to bring excitement/enjoyment and bring in fans through the door. It’s an ambitious club and I’m an ambitious manger and I want to see the club competing.’

Team:
1 Kevin Baldwin, 2 Jordan Tucker (goal-55), 3 Jamie Hastings, 4 Stu Garry, 5 Danny Walmsley, 6 Aaron Halliwell, 7 Jerome Watt, 8 Josh Draycott, 9 Lee Ashcroft, 10 Ryan McKenna, 11 Jonty McDonald