Penrith were up against it for their North One West trip to Birkenhead Park.
They returned home after a battling 36-31 knowing they could, and possibly should, have had a bonus point win.
Head coach David Preston and his backroom staff had spent all week dealing with a host of injuries and unavailabilities.
Three late cry-offs did not help their cause but they were determined to travel and managed to patch a side together at the last minute.
They had two teenagers, Dylan Thompson and Aaron Cavaghan, making their senior debuts and a senior coach on the bench but they did make the trip.
They were initially just looking to come away with their pride intact, had they thought they were going to come away with two bonus points they would have been more than pleased.
In the end they left Birkenhead a little disappointed but the youngsters pulled in did give a good account of themselves and the whole side gave it a real go.
The game itself was end-of-season fare, the ground was hard underfoot, defending seemed to be optional and it was an open and entertaining match for the neutral.
Penrith opened the scoring after a long touch finder from Brad Taylor put them deep inside the home 22.
The visitors had a five metre scrum and with steady ball number eight Archie Rattray picked up and was quickly away and past the home back row before they lifted their heads and went over for the try which Mike Fearon converted.
The home side weren’t long in getting back into the game. They scored from a line-out, following a penalty kicked to the corner, and then shortly after when Penrith failed to defend at the fringe of a breakdown on the 22, they were in again for a soft try.
The Cumbrians soon got their noses back in front when Nick Dudson came up with turn-over ball and Fraser Nicolson made some headway down the left before putting Taylor away who had a bit to do but made the line. Fearon again converted for a 14-12 lead.
The home side regained the lead after some decent play in midfield and questionable Penrith defending but George Graham put his side ahead again.
Jamie McNaughton kicked the penalty to the corner and Chris Jackson won line-out ball from where Graham weaved his way through some heavy traffic to score.
Fearon’s conversion gave them a 21-17 advantage but again more slack defending saw Birkenhead retake the lead at the break with a converted try.
The visitors started the second half on top but when the home side eventually cleared their lines and went on to score a fifth try to lead by 10 points the writing looked to be on the wall for Preston’s young side. He needn’t have feared though as once more they came back. Good line-out ball was secured on the left, which was quickly moved wide right, and Nathan Allcock took his chance well and squeezed in at the corner under some pressure.
Penrith got on to level terms with another well taken try quarter of an hour from the end.
After spending some time in the home 22 and battering the home line Dudson found a neat pass to allow Fearon in at the corner to dot the ball down unopposed.
With the scores tied at 31 apiece the game went into the last 10 minutes and although the visitors were seeing more of the ball and had the better field position it was Birkenhead who broke through midfield to score the winning try.
Penrith again mounted an assault on home line but just couldn’t get over and the relieved home side tapped then kicked a penalty to touch to finish the game.
