NORTHWICH Victoria’s heaviest home defeat in a league match for close to four decades surprised everybody except, perhaps, one man.

Kendal boss Lee Ashcroft boasted following the teams’ first meeting – a 1-1 draw earlier this month – that Vics would finish ‘nowhere near’ the top of the table.

His was a satisfied smile at full time.

And with reason too; the Cumbrians were clinical, taking their goals tally to ten in two matches for the week and with no little style.

“We were taught a lesson,” admitted Northwich manager Andy Preece afterwards.

Easy to forget then that Vics took the lead on eight minutes when Ollie Ryan, later to leave the pitch on a stretcher, swept in from close range.

His touch finished the hosts’ best move of the match; Wayne Riley’s pass inviting Mark Peers to hare past Danny Wisdom before teeing up his team’s top scorer.

Kendal levelled in no time, Alex Taylor swooping in front of shot-stopper James Spencer to meet Danny Rowe’s chipped cross.

Taylor’s second goal on 26 minutes was taken from a textbook; a thumping header that applied gloss to Keiran Walmsley’s perfect centre.

Only seconds earlier Ryan had blasted straight at keeper David Newnes after John McAliskey’s clever touch had turned Adam Sumner’s clipped pass into an assist.

Vics finished the half strongly.

Peers twice went past Wisdom at speed, but Ryan and then McAliskey failed to make the most of headed chances.

Then David Thompson’s snapshot from Riley’s corner was smuggled off the goalline by a defender with Newnes not able to intervene.

But Kendal, with third place in the table a potential prize for victory, cruised home after half time.

Rowe escaped the clutches of Thompson six minutes after the restart and from his pass Taylor swatted aside Ferenc Fodor before firing in for his hat-trick.

At the other end Andy Fowler was first to a long ball, but Newnes was swift to smother his attempted finish.

The net-minder was not needed again.

Wisdom scored Kendal’s fourth, a fluke, when his cross curved over Spencer’s head and into the far corner of the net on 57 minutes.

The visitors saved the swagger for number five, steered in by Paul Lloyd after Rowe had wriggled one way and then the other when Fodor had failed to clear.

Rowe took a turn to shoot next, but his drive scraped the upright.

Ashcroft’s withdrawal of Taylor might have seemed an act of mercy, but Kendal’s insistence upon attack was rewarded when Osman squeezed in a sixth goal from an acute angle.

Newnes parried Fowler’s scorcher in stoppage time only for Fodor to nod against the angle from the rebound.

A goal then would have changed a sorry statistic by 30 years.

As it is Vics’ previous loss by a five-goals margin in front of their own fans – a 5-0 drubbing by Bangor City in March 1972 – was, ironically, during their first foray in the Northern Premier League.

They went on to finish in fifth place.

Vics’ Star Man Paul Henry. Perhaps should be renamed Vics’ Least Worst Player for one night only.

Seems almost churlish to pick one, but the substitute showed an appetite that many around him did not when Kendal assumed total control in the second half.

Continued to tackle and make forays forward when others – on the pitch and in the stands – were all but praying for referee John Brooks to blow his whistle and end the torture.

Vics (4-4-2) Spencer (GK), Jackson (Flowers 80), Fodor, Thompson, Sumner, Peers, Sorvel, Riley (Crane 62), Fowler, Ryan (Henry 43), McAliskey
Subs not used O’Brien, Connor
Goal Ryan 8
Booked Riley (kicking the ball away), Fowler (foul)

Kendal (4-4-2) Newnes (GK), Walmsley, Steel, Winters, Wisdom (Clark 70), Osman, Stopforth, Dunn, Lloyd (McGahon 70), Rowe, Taylor (Foster 77)
Subs not used Gardner, Mulvaney
Goals Taylor 12, 26, 51, Wisdom 57, Lloyd 63, Osman 81
Booked Winters (handball)

Referee John Brooks
Attendance 480