Kendal Town v Everton Reserves
Everton reserves secured a 3-2 victory over Kendal Town.
A brace from Bjarni Vidarsson and a goal from Ryan Harpur settled an entertaining affair at the Planet Conservatories Stadium. The Unibond Premier League side gave a spirited display but the energy and guile of the Blues shone through.
Kendal started the brighter of the two sides with Peter Wright forcing keeper Michael McEntegart into a diving save on 12 minutes.
Shortly after Aidan Downes created the Blues’ first chance of the afternoon. Downes collected a through ball from Vidarsson, the striker weaved his way through the Kendal defence into the penalty area but only a last ditch tackle from John Forbes stopped Downes from shooting.
Everton were enjoying the majority of the possession with Vidarsson and John Paul Kissock orchestrating proceedings in the middle of the park but the Blues could find a way through a resilient Kendal defence.
Harpur tried his luck from 25-yards but the shot sailed over Rogerson’s crossbar. The Blues defence were marshalling the strike force of Wright and Foster well with Darren Dennehy and Shaun Densmore producing a number of well timed tackles.
On 34 minutes Everton broke the deadlock. From Kissock’s corner Vidarsson towered above his marker to loop his header over the keeper into the back of the net.
Two minutes later Vidarsson put the ball into the back of the net after Rogerson spilled the ball but the assistant referee ruled the goal out for offside.
Moments before half-time, Scott Redhead found himself one on one with McEntegart but the young keeper stood his ground and collected the ball from the winger's feet.
Andy Holden made one change for the second half with Kieran Agard replacing Downes.
Kendal drew level five minutes after the restart when Rehead chipped the ball over McEntegart from a tight angle.
However less than 60 seconds later, Harpur unleashed a bullet shot from six yards out which left the keeper with no chance as the ball hit the roof of the net.
Substitute Gareth Arnison scored with his first touch to make the score 2-2. Arnison beat the offside trap and hit a shot from 10-yards which beat the keeper at the near post.
Vidarsson scored his second goal of the game on 66 minutes. The Icelander met Andy van der Meyde’s pin point cross to powerfully head the ball home.
Substitutes Agard and Steven Morrison had decent chances before van der Meyde saw his overhead kick skim inches over the bar.
Redhead tested the reflexes of McEntegart with less than five minutes left but it was not enough to grab a late equaliser for the non-league side.
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