Monday, 14 September 2009 NATIONAL THREE NORTH Penrith made too many mistakes in their first home game of the new National Three North season and lost 31-29 to Middlesbrough. It brought the Cumbrians back to earth after their opening day win at Sheffield Tigers and provided coach Stuart Connell with food for thought. One of his min concerns will be that biggest in two games already Penrith have conceded eight tries, so clearly the defence will have to be worked on ahead of next Saturday’s trip to Morley who were 34-3 winners at West Park on Saturday. It started badly in the second minute when Steve Wood’s looping miss pass wasn’t collected and Middlesbrough raced away to score the opening try which was converted. Then Penrith began to play some nice rugby and applied strong pressure on their visitors, which saw them awarded a penalty which Wood put over. Penrith got themselves in front when Andy Holcroft hit the line on a good angle, made space and then put Gavin Cartmel away. The youngster did well to then send in Tom Armstrong who broke a couple of tackles to score at the corner. Wood landed a fine conversion for s 10-7 lead. Unfortunately Penrith were then given offside chasing a Wood kick and Middlesbrough took it quickly on the ten metre line, catching the home side asleep and went in under the posts – their second gifted try of the match to lead 14-10. Penrith hit back when David Preston made ground up the middle and his basketball pass was well taken by Sandy Kerridge who showed good pace to outstrip the cover from half way an score an unconverted try. Middlesbrough were next to score, though, with a well-worked try, A five metre line-out was well defended by Penrith and then a scrum from a similar short range. But Middlesbrough eventually ran a number of drives and created an overlap on the right which created a converted try. Another Wood penalty closed the gap but Penrith conceded another soft try when the Middlesbrough fly-half collected a ball from a five metre scrum and went in without anyone laying a hand on him for a 28-18 interval lead. Penrith had the better of the second half but made too many mistakes to put Middlsbrough under any concerted pressure. They did peg back the deficit with a Wood penalty and then the same player made an interception to score in the corner and close the gap to just two points - 26-28. The two sides then traded penalties with ten minutes to go but Penrith couldn’t mount the final assault and Middlesbrough’s experienced forwards saw them home, killing-off the game where it mattered. It was exceptionally disappointing for Middlesbrough to lose a game they could have won.