BONNY BLUES LET TWO POINTS SLIP

Penrith 2 West Allotment Celtic 2 – Ebac Northern League Division One:

Penrith will be kicking themselves.  Deservedly 2-0 up with 15 minutes to go and seemingly three points in the bag.  But the Bonny Blues were unable to close the game out and claim the win.

Second best for much of the game, West Allotment kept plugging away and broke the Cumbrians’ hearts with a late equaliser.

It had all started so differently for Penrith – one goal to the good with less than a minute on the clock; Luke Hunter found in bags of space with a long ball from the left, with the West Allotment defence caught napping, allowing the No. 10 to hit his strike into the net.

And they kept the pressure on.  In the 8th minute, Matthew Foster tried to lob the ball round and over Allotment keeper Dan Gladstone who was able to make a fingertip save to nudge it out for a corner.  But the save only delayed a goal by a minute – Foster hitting another shot that Gladstone was again able to stop at full stretch but the ball fell into the path of Hunter who bagged his and his team’s second.

Blues winger Luke Brown then dribbled through the West Allotment defence, the ball fell between Foster and Gladstone with the keeper winning a free kick after coming off second best in a contested 50-50 ball.

It took Allotment 15 minutes to get their motor running and get any kind of decent possession in Penrith’s half, but it was the home team who came close to scoring again:  Joshua Crewes getting his head to a corner that Gladstone was able to palm on to the post.  Penrith were in fine form, looking a well-drilled cohesive unit, with players knowing where they were meant to be and what they were meant to be doing.

For their part, West Allotment weren’t creating much in the way of an attacking threat.  On the half-hour a long ball was sent upfield for Cyril Giraud but Penrith keeper Harvey Reay raced out of his area to beat him to the ball.  And the half ended with another Penrith chance, the ball spinning off Hunter as he was clattered by Gladstone before it looped over the keeper and bar.

Three minutes after the re-start West Allotment had a rare sight of goal, Callum Larmouth hitting a shot into the side netting.  Penrith answered that with a stinging shot by Robbie Hebson that Gladstone was able to parry.

Most of West Allotment’s second half attacks consisted of Jack Errington launching long balls forward but the moves then petering out.  In the 63rd minute Penrith had veteran Grant Davidson to thank when the defender was able to boot a goalmouth scramble clear.

The tide then turned the visitors’ way.  In the 74th minute Larmouth hit a sweet, swerving shot between keeper and post to give them a bit of hope and impetus at 2-1.  The No. 9 then had two shots charged down.

Naive play by Penrith brought self-inflicted pressure, giving the ball away cheaply instead of passing the ball around to kill the game off and they were made to pay in the second minute of time added on.  They lost possession in their own half, there was another goalmouth scramble that they were unable to clear and substitute Jacob Forster was on hand to poke it into the net to grab the equaliser.

It was a cruel end for the Blues but credit to West Allotment for somehow getting the draw when they were far from their best.

Mike Snowdon