Penrith AFC first team recorded their first Northern League Division I win of the new season as they thrashed Tow Law Town 5-1 on their own patch in midweek.
After a disappointing first half display and 2-0 defeat at Whitley Bay in their opening fixture on Saturday, the Blues hit back in style on Tuesday evening.
Luke Hunter scored after just two minutes before Luke Brown doubled the visitors’ lead soon after. Tow Law pulled a goal back before new signing Ronan Irving and then Alfie Brunskill replied to make the half-time score 4-1. Robbie Hebson added a fifth after the break.
“The first half performance was probably the best we have played since I came,” said manager Darren Edmondson, who is in his second season in charge. “We just counter-pressed brilliantly and had great energy levels, especially high up the pitch.”
Edmondson was “gutted” Penrith came away from Whitley Bay empty-handed at the weekend. Yet he was keen not to get carried away by the win at Tow Law.
“I take one game at a time,” he said. “We’ve been so inconsistent as a club for three years, maybe longer. Definitely last year that was our problem. But the squad have worked really well and it’s becoming closer knit which is what I was after; a different vibe in the changing room and different focus. That’s want we want to build and we want Tuesday to be a catalyst for that.
“They’ve shown what they can do. They’re not going to reach that first half performance every week but if we get close to that over 90 minutes then we’ll do well in most games. The hardest thing for managers at this level is to get consistency out of the lads. We’ve just got to build that into them.
“Your first win is important but then your second and your third have to come soon after. It’s one game. It’s a great result, it will definitely have lifted spirits. What we can’t do is get too high.”
Penrith hit the FA Cup trail this Saturday (5th August, 3pm kick-off) at “home” to newly-promoted Northern League first division outfit Boro Rangers, who began their campaign with a 1-1 draw at Northallerton Town on Saturday.
Blues officials have expressed their gratitude to their counterparts at Carlisle City’s Gillford Park, where the extra preliminary round tie will be played this weekend. A preliminary round home tie against either Kendal Town or Consett in a fortnight is up for grabs.
Penrith’s Frenchfield Park is out of action due to renovation work which is expected to be completed in mid-September.
“We’ve got to applaud Carlisle City for that,” said Edmondson of their offer to host the tie. “In theory it’s still an away game but it’s better than us doing an hour-and-a-half journey beforehand. We would have had to reverse the fixture if we couldn’t find anywhere to play it.”
The FA Cup is a good form of revenue if you can wins some games. “That’s a must for us,” he said. “ We didn’t do well last year in the cups. The emphasis is on winning games and hopefully we can put some cup competitions together either in this cup or the next (FA Vase) to try and get a little bit of extra needed revenue for the club.
“We’ve got a lot of weeks where we play away so we’ve got no income and it’s difficult at the moment.
“The chances of us getting to the first round proper are very slim. But winning games just gives you momentum at the start of the season.
“The FA Cup comes really early for us which is good because if we can build on the Tow Law win on Saturday, we’ve got a Tuesday game again and you start to build more belief in the squad.”
Assuming no FA Cup replay is needed, Penrith will travel to play Whickham in the Northern League on Tuesday (7-45pm).
