Spennymoor Town 2 Kendal 1.

A header in the sixth minute of injury time by defender Joe Tait gave Spennymoor the points against Kendal in a niggly game at the Brewery Field last night.

It was a lack lustre first 25 minutes before Kendal nearly took the lead when Jeff King sent Jordan Connerton racing clear into the area, but Moors keeper Adam McHugh came quickly off his line and saved at his feet.

There were a couple of long range shots at each end that barely troubled the keepers, and also a scuffle involving several players that ended with Moors’ Andrew Stephenson and Kendal’s Jeff King being booked by referee Lucy May.

But in first half stoppage time, the game burst into life when the Kendal defence could only clear a left wing corner as far as Shane Henry, who drove the ball through a crowd of players past keeper Danny McDonald.

Kendal levelled 12 minutes after the restart, with a good run around the back of the Spennymoor defence by King, and he laid the ball on a plate for Jamie Colebourn to slide in at the far post.

Stephenson nearly restored Moors’ lead with a right foot shot from 25 yards that skidded just wide, then Nathan Fisher fired across the face of goal.

But Connerton, who always looked dangerous on his left foot, hit a 30 yarder that McHugh touched around the post, then in Kendal’s next attack King dribbled past four men but put his shot well over the bar.

Sub Ian Ward fired straight at McDonald from a few yards as Moors recovered, but then they had a couple of blocks in their own area to thanks as Kendal threatened again.

Shots by Ward and Joe Tait were cleared off the line in a frantic finish, and McDonald pushed a Tait header around the post. From the corner that followed, Henry put the ball into the middle for Tait to head into the roof of the net, his sixth goal of the season.

Spennymoor.

McHugh, Groves, Johnson, Henry, Tait, Capper, McReady (sub Ward 70), Stephenson, Fisher (sub Henderson 88), Roberts, Peacock (sub Lynch 77).

Subs not used: Gibson, Brown.