KENDAL...4

RADCLIFFE BORO...1

THE ingredients were there for an upset. Top versus bottom and a gale force wind making constructive football almost impossible.

Sure enough an abject Boro performance after being cock-a-hoop after hitting top spot on Saturday saw them soundly despatched by a side which showed greater determination.

It all started so well. Boro knocked the ball about smartly from the kick-off and Richard Landon twice went close in the opening minutes.

The breakthrough came after 18 minutes following the best move of the game. Boro strung together a dozen passes as they probed for an opening and eventually Richard Battersby delivered a superb cross which Landon headed home from six yards.

From then on it was all downhill for Boro. With their first attack on 12 minutes, Kendal equalised. A through ball caught the Boro defence at sixes and sevens, Danny Hurst blocked an effort, but Kevin Barnes followed up to score.

Kendal now had their tails up as they realised that they must hustle Boro if they were to disrupt the visitors passing game. This they did to a T!

Boro's defence never got to grips and the second goal came three minutes after the first. An uninspired punt forward found Lee Chambers with all the time in the world to lift the ball over the advancing Hurst.

Boro just couldn't make progress against the wind and a stubborn Kendal back line. Jody Banim wriggled and turned, but rarely got near goal and Landon, despite his height, got little return from Lang and Burrow at the heart of the Town defence.

Everyone expected Boro turn things round with the wind at their backs, but despite a flurry of attacking shortly after the break, the story was much as before.

Boro by-passed midfield too much and the final ball was always lacking quality. Manager Glendon tried to change things wirth the introduction of Mark Dempsey after 57 minutes, but it wasd the home team that struck again five minutes later.

Boro failed to clear a corner and as the ball bounced around the penalty area, James Price was adjudged to have handled and Stuart Cliff despatched the penalty.

Boro could find no way through the well-organised Town defence, but looked decidedly jittery when the ball was played into their half.

The fourth goal came with 22 minutes remaining. Boro again only half cleared from a set piece and Kevin Barnes grabbed his second, firing home from just inside the box.

Boro just couldn't hit the target and it wasn't until the 86th minute that Town keeper Lee Ward was called up to make his first save, grabbing a Banim effort on the goal-line.

This gave rise to Boro's best spell of the half and Tony Whealing and Dave Collins both went close in the closing minutes.

The win -- their first of the season -- didn't lifted Kendal off the bottom and Boro are still in top spot, but this game must have given manager Glendon plenty to think about.

Boro must find a way to rise above teams that offer little more than toil and effort or their lofty ambitions will soon be in tatters.

RADCLIFFE BOROUGH: Hurst 7, Battersby 6, Whealing 7, S Kelly 6, Bean 5, Walker 5, Elliott 6, S Wilson 7, Landon 6, Banim 7, Price 6. Substitutes: G Wilson (for Landon, 72 mins), Collins (for Price, 62 mins) 6, Dempsey (for Walker, 57 mins) 6.

Boro entertain Workington at Stainton Park on Saturday with a 1pm kick-off because of the England v Greece game at OId Trafford later.