It was another afternoon of frustration for Ramsbottom United as they went down 4-2 at home against Kendal Town in NWCFL Premier Division.

After a heavy defeat in midweek, the Rams were looking for a change of fortune on home soil, but despite their trademark passing game looking pleasing on the eye, the defensive problems came back once again to haunt them against a Kendal team they had beaten earlier in the season in Cumbria.

It was the visitors who opened the scoring after 25 minutes, when Jacob Gregory found room on the right side of the box, and floated a superb effort into the far top corner.

At that time the home side could have been a couple of goals to the good as Harvey Whyte stroked his effort wide, and another of his free-kicks sailed inches past the far post.

However, it was Kendal who struck next after 32 minutes, with Robert Wilson sliding home from a tight angle, although Rams keeper Kai Calderbank-Park would have been disappointed not to have kept the soft effort out.

The Rams continued to probe and found a way back into the game with the strangest of goals on 37 minutes. The ball landed at the feet of Whyte, out on the right of the area, and his cross took a wicked deflection off a Kendal defender and lobbed high over the visiting keeper.

That inspired the home side, and they came out looking to level the scores and their effort was rewarded on 64 minutes when the referee pointed to the spot for a foul on Maine Walder in the box, and up stepped Matt Dudley to convert to make it 2-2.

Just six minutes later, the visitors were back in front when some neat play on the left saw the ball worked to Wilson who was again on target with a low drive from 18 yards.

With two minutes to go, in an attempt to thwart another Ramsbottom attack, a long clearance found James Bailey who outstripped his marker to race into the area and slip in a low drive from an acute angle, and put the game to bed.

Manager Steve Wilkes again bemoaned the outcome: “Another disappointing defeat at home. I think it’s plain for everyone to see where our problems lay, and that is we can’t keep a clean sheet.

“I thought when we got it back to 2-2 from 2-0 down, we’d go on and win the game, but once again our defensive frailties came back to haunt us.”