Penrith made progress in the Northern League’s new knockout competition and now face back-to-back games against Guisborough Town.
The Bonnyblues beat Bishop Auckland 2-0 at Frenchfield and will travel to Guisborough on Wednesday in the second round of the Ernest Armstrong Memorial Cup.
In between they face a crucial home game on Saturday against Guisborough who are four places and 11 points ahead of Penrith in the Northern League Division One table.
Penrith won the game against relegation rivals Bishops with goals from Connor Shields (31) and young substitute Alfie Brunskill (85).
Chairman Billy Williams said: “It wasn’t a priority of ours. The only target is to maintain our First Division status but I suppose a win is a win.
“They were about 80% as far as first team players was concerned and web were about 40 per cent so from that point of view it was useful.
“We were able to look at some of our younger fringe players and generally they did fine, which augers well for the future. Young Brunskill came on and scored a goal. He’s come through our academy and reserves so it was good to see him show what he can do.
“There was also a nice contribution from Josh Padgett, another young forward and I thought he did well.
“We have recently taken Aiden Howarth on dual registration from Workington and he had a full 90 minutes and did well.”
Howarth is a young defender who was taken to Workington by former manager Danny Grainger and has had some Northern Premier League experience. He was a player that Grainger thought a lot of.
