Gavin Skelton said Carlisle United showed the right “intensity” as they ran up nine goals against pre-season opponents Kendal Town.

The Blues showed little mercy to their North West Counties Premier League hosts in the game at Parkside Road.

Jamie Devitt scored a hat-trick in his first summer outing as he bids for a new deal.

New signing Sonny Hilton and frontman Tobi Sho-Silva got two apiece with Kristian Dennis and Nic Bollado also on target.

READ MORE: Kendal Town 0-9 Carlisle United: Devitt hits hat-trick and new boy on target in friendly win

There was little let-up in Carlisle’s attacking against their non-league hosts and, despite the gulf in quality, assistant boss Skelton was happy with the team’s approach in south Cumbria.

News and Star: Two-goal Sonny HiltonTwo-goal Sonny Hilton

“You want to get something from it – it’s vital.

“We trained earlier in the day, had a plan of what we wanted, and there’s got to be a purpose of being here and that comes from the intensity that we want to play at.

“If you want to do anything in football you’ve got to do it with intensity.

“I could feel it in the warm-up. Sometimes you get in the warm-up for pre-season games and get a feel, and the pitch is tricky, but I felt right from the off there was a purpose.

“I said to the manager actually – I said, ‘They’re right at it there’. To be fair, they were. We were pleased about it, they went about it in the right way.”

Manager Paul Simpson again switched his team at half-time, with only Dennis and keeper Tomas Holy getting more than 45 minutes.

News and Star: Hat-trick scorer Jamie DevittHat-trick scorer Jamie Devitt

They were involved for an hour as Simpson gave his full squad – apart from injured trio Omari Patrick, Sam Fishburn and Taylor Charters – opportunities.

It means Carlisle have scored 14 goals in their opening two friendlies – after hitting five at Penrith last Friday – with the standard of opposition now set to go up a notch with this weekend’s trip to Workington Reds.

“We could have had more goals, but it did feel ruthless,” added Skelton last night.

“We created a lot of opportunities with not overplaying. Sometimes you can get caught into playing too many passes, but there was a real edge and purpose to it, and a bit of competition to try and score.

“They didn’t let the game die when we went 2-0, 3-0 up, they kept that intensity, doing the right things; they worked hard, tried to regain the ball, passed the ball properly, and it was pleasing to get some people on the scoresheet – scoring goals is good for the confidence.”