Kendal Town 1, Fleetwood Town 2.

North West Counties side Fleetwood scored a deserved victory over an under par Kendal Town in the Marsden BS Lancashire Cup last night.

Fleetwood matched their UniBond League First Division opponents in all departments and took the tie with a goal in each half.

Nineteen minutes into the match Gary McGonnell burst through a gaping hole in Kendal's midfield and split the back four with a pinpoint pass to Lee Catlow, who rounded Town's second choice keeper Andy Davis with ease.

Fleetwood appeared to have doubled their advantage on 26 minutes when Cartlow's looping free-kick from 30 yards was misjudged by Davis and dipped under the bar. Bizarrely, after a flag from the linesman, referee Mr R. Dention changed his decision from a goal to a corner kick.

On 41 minutes persistent winger Peter Smith forced an equaliser. His low driven cross lured McGonnell into deflecting the ball for an own goal.

Several Kendal chances went begging in the remaining minutes before the interval and Town paid the penalty for those misses on 60 minutes when a Fleetwood corner was met by a cavalry charge of attackers with Philip Thompson getting in first to head home.

Kendal showed little initiative in finding ways to open up the hard-working Fleetwood defence in the final half-hour although Kenny Mayers thought he had netted an overhead equaliser on 82 minutes only for it to be ruled out for being marginally offside.

On Saturday Kendal are in league action with a home game against bottom club Rocester, but will need to find a return to their goalscoring form of recent weeks if they are to continue their drive towards the top of the league.