Avro manager Alex Frost praised his side’s defensive resilience as they recorded a 1-0 victory over in form Kendal Town on a bitterly cold night at the Vestacare Stadium, despite playing the last half hour with 10 men, writes Liam Bambridge.

Ethan Sutcliffe gave the home side the lead halfway through the first period, racing clear of the visiting defence before rifling the ball past Kendal keeper Daniel Roccia. In a game of few chances at either end, Jamie Rother’s sending off just past the hour mark forced Avro on the defensive, but they hung on to their lead to move to within three points of league leaders Vauxhall Motors with a game in hand.

“I thought we dug in superbly in that last third of the game,” said Frost. “Obviously it wasn’t the way we had planned it, but Kendal have been playing really well recently and they knew exactly what they needed to do to make the most of their advantage.

“However, it says a lot about how good this team is from a defensive point of view that although they made the pitch as wide as possible with their passing, we kept our shape brilliantly and they didn’t create a single clear goal scoring opportunity. All the lads deserve tremendous credit for that.”

Avro have now recorded 17 wins in the league and the same number of clean sheets in all competitions, with Frost’s philosophy being a simple one: “If you don’t concede goals, you don’t lose games. We have also yet to drop a single point when we have gone ahead in a game, and that tells you everything you need to know about this group of players.

“They are so committed to the cause, and their concentration levels this season have been sky high. We work hard in training on being difficult to break down, but you then have to go out and deliver on match days, and they have shown that they can do that week in week out.

“I am delighted with their never say die attitude - you can’t coach that, it comes from within, and these lads have it in spades.”

Next up for Frost’s side is a tricky Macron Cup tie in St Helens against Pilkington FC tomorrow afternoon, a game which is likely to go ahead despite the current sub zero temperatures because of the home side’s 4G playing surface.

“It will be a really tough game,” said Frost. “They are top of their league and tonight has taken a lot out of our players, so we will need to make some changes.

“However we are on a great run of form right now and we want to keep that going, so we are looking forward very much to the challenge of doing so on Saturday.”