Penrith knew no less than five points would do from this tricky fixture with Bradford and Bingley if they were to maintain their hopes of second spot and a play off place at the end of the season. As it happened their afternoon couldn't have gone much better as they eventually ran out easy winners and their rivals Alnwick and West Hartlepool both surprisingly lost. It leaves Penrith with their fate in their own hands, avoid defeat at Percy Park in a fortnight and a play off place is their's.
The game couldn't have started any better for them, George Graham took a long kick off and returned it deep into the visitor's half, they attempted to run the ball back and were turned over at a ruck on half way. Penrith went through the phases and worked themselves deeper and deeper into Bradford territory until the forwards were battering on the line, Phil Gardham drove for the line but was held up, he was able to spin in contact and slip the ball to Liam Tunstall who dived over and Penrith had scored from the first play of the game.
They came within a whisker of scoring from the second play as they attacked from the restart, Graham made the break and Harlan Corrie made ground before Will Morgan crashed over but was pulled back for a forward pass 5m out.
The home side gave away two penalties in quick succession and went from attacking 5m off the line to defending a lineout in their own 22, the Yorkshire outfit showed it wasn't only the Cumbrians who could handle and run and worked a try of their own to level the scores. They scored a second try five minutes later, a clean break through the centre took play to the Penrith line and the defenders did well to get the ball scrambled away into touch. The kick had little distance on it though and gave the visitors an attacking platform as the won the lineout and drove for the line, their big forwards made no mistake and won the arm wrestle and crossed the line for a 14-7 lead.
The game swung back to the home side as they exerted a deal of pressure at the other end of the field, the pressure told as the visitors gave away a string of penalties and the referee eventually tired of their indiscretions and showed the yellow card. Penrith got on even terms from one of these penalties when Graham saw the chance and took a quick one, made ground against a retreating defence, found Ed Swale who looked as if he was going to make the line but when he was held Matt Allinson was on hand to crash over.
Then there was a bizarre incident, there was a melee on the touchline, nothing too serious with the odd blow exchanged, it looked to be over as the referee approached and blew his whistle and the sides parted, a Bradford player then stepped back in and poleaxed the Penrith touch judge. The referee had no choice once the injuries were dealt with to show the red card and the visitors were a man short after half an hour.
They were actually down to 13 as they also had a man off with a yellow card. Penrith kicked the penalty to touch on the 22 and scored the try of the game, quick lineout ball was moved into midfield, Allinson found Swale, in the line from fullback, he in turn released Ben Littleton who made the exrta man off the blind side wing and he put Jon Fell away on the outside for a simple run in.
Penrith then got their fourth and bonus point try from a scrum on the 22, No8 Dan Richardson looked to have made the wrong decision when he went on his own but he fought through a couple of tackles before finding Graham who did the hard work to set Swale up for the try.
Penrith looked to be flying with a 26-17 lead as half time approached but they were pegged back with a penalty with the last kick of the half and had a nine point lead at the break. The second half started quietly with Penrith appearing a bit nervous as one score would see the visitors right back in the game, they let a couple of chances go begging but once the scored 17 minutes into the half the floodgates opened.
Allinson was the catalyst for the first of the six second half tries as he barged through a number of tackles and set up a maul 15m out, Ryan Johnson then appeared out of the maul on the visitor's side and made a beeline for the try line and romped in.
Swale engineered the next score running back a clearance kick, he beat a defender on the outside and found Fell on the right wing, he headed for the corner but was being tracked by Olly Gutteridge, on as replacement off the left wing and when Fell could see he wasn't going to get in at the corner flipped the ball back inside to the youngster who ran round under the posts.
Allinson claimed the next try after good interplay by Graham and Fearon set him up, Fearon saw the gap for the next try with the visitors pinned on their line and Fell claimed his second and then hat trick try to cmplete the tally. He had Arran Sullivan to thank for the first as he stripped the ball off a visiting forward to set Ryan Banks away who fed Fell and then Graham who's quick penalty and chip over the advancing backline into his path along with a kind bounce gave him a clear run in.
Penrith have the Easter break to get all the niggles to injured players sorted out and then set themselves up for their trip to Tynemouth and Percy Park.