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Longridge Town 3-0 Kendal Town

Longridge Town 3-0 Kendal Town

Kevin Harrison19 Jul 2016 - 21:11
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Dominant Town win in the Sun

Having fielded several trialist's in Friday's friendly against a strong Fleetwood Town side, Longridge manager Lee Ashcroft started a much stronger team in Tuesday nights game against Evo Stik Division One side Kendal Town as pre season preparations continued for both Clubs.
All four Summer signings,Lee Dovey, Alex Randell, Danny Morris and Mark Wood started the game for Longridge as the game started with Kendal fielding a first choice eleven.
In a game played at a fast pace on a glorious Summer night down at the MRG, it took 15 minutes for the first chance of note by either side as crowd favourite Joe Melling burst into the penalty area,and cut inside, before firing a shot just over the bar. This seemed to give the visitors a warning sign as they enjoyed good possession for the next period before their new signing, striker Olli Wood, found himself one on one with home keeper Dovey who narrowed the angle well, forcing Wood to fire into the side netting.
Longridge then dominated the ball without really troubling the Kendal keeper, and it was in fact Dovey again who made a good save from a 25 yard free kick in the last minute of the half to send the sides in level at half time.
The 2nd half began with both sides making several substitutions, and it was home sub Ash Ball who gave his team the lead on 50 minutes after a Brad Carsley flick on from a throw in found Alex Randell who laid it off for Ball to finish from 18 yards into the bottom corner.
The home side grew in confidence and Randell,in particular, began to dictate play more and more as the game went on.
On the hour Longridge captain George Melling played a glorious through ball for last seasons 40 goal man Brad Carsley to run on to, and he calmly slotted the ball under the Kendal keeper to make it 2-0.
This gave Town manager Ashcroft the chance to rest Carsley with John Stead coming on for the final 25 minutes.
Stead duly rewarded the home faithful with a goal after 75 minutes when Ash Ball was fouled in the area when clean through, and Stead calmly rolled in the penalty for his first goal at the Club to make it 3-0.
Longridge then defended well to keep a clean sheet under the floodlights at the MRG with the returning Sam Marsh defending superbly.
After the match a satisfied Lee Ashcroft explained " It's early days as we prepare to play up at Holker Old Boys on Saturday,and integrating the new lads is important as they don't really know how we play yet and what is expected of them, but it's a decent start against a strong Kendal side. Kendal is a great Club and I had 9 happy years there so it was nice to see their manager (former Longridge Coach) Dave Foster, and I'd love to see them have a good season."
" From our own point of view we'll be working on our formation in training and everyone will be aware of the job they have to do. All the lads we have brought into the Club are strong characters and it will be a loud dressing room this season. We were better tonight, and we will continue to get fitter as pre season progresses"

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