Penrith’s charge to the Regional 2 North title has been hit by injuries as they negotiate the run-in.
Their season has been largely injury free but they lost Jay Rossi a fortnight ago to a bad muscle tear and both Mike Fearon and Archie Rattray limped off against Carlisle on Saturday.
This Saturday is a rearranged fixture so there are already some unavailabilities as players had opted to earn brownie points with family commitments instead.
Head coach Dave Preston will certainly be hoping one or two of his recent injuries have cleared-up for what is likely to be a difficult trip to Middlesbrough, the only team to win at Winters Park this season.
That was on September 17, the third week of the season, when it finished 38-24 to the Teessiders, and Penrith will want to put the record straight as potential champions.
They didn’t have it all their own way against Carlisle last week but a strong second-half performance saw them through to a 48-12 win at Warwick Road which mathematically condemned the city side to relegation.
Indiscipline, cards and penalties were Carlisle’s undoing as they competed well with Penrith, certainly in the first half, but 20 minutes of men on the bench in the second half didn’t do Carlisle any favours and Penrith ruthlessly exploited it, even though they were a man down themselves.
Saturday sees the rearranged home game against Consett, which was frozen off in December.
Carlisle might be doomed but a win over Consett would help Keswick in their fight to avoid the drop as well.
It’s looking like Keswick, Consett or South Shields Westoe will be the ones to accompany Carlisle in the drop.
Keswick lost 43-3 at Morpeth last week with a Kieran Mewes penalty their only reward. On Saturday they host Northern who are only two points behind Morpeth and pushing for runners-up spot.
Interestingly Keswick’s final two games of the League season after that are at home to Carlisle and away to Consett so survival is very much in their own hands.
Aspatria lost 46-12 at Durham City and picked-up more injuries so they will welcome a free weekend. They still have to fit in a home game against Morpeth.
Kendal produced one of their best performances of the season when they beat Northwich 38-10 with the bonus point wrapped-up by half-time.
Kendal are still third bottom, but well out of relegation trouble, and are likely to finish in that position with two games to play.
They don’t have a game this week-end but the seconds are at home on Saturday to Tarleton.
Bottom side Kirkby Lonsdale, who lost 47-10 at home to Manchester, travel to Blackburn for a rearranged game.
Blackburn have led the table nearly all season but have recently lost it to Lymm. They are five points behind with a game in hand so Kirkby Lonsdale can expect a tough time on Saturday.
Big game in the Counties Cumbria Conference 1 is between first and second – Cockermouth v champions Upper Eden – which is expected to pull a big crowd to Strawberry How.
There’s a tasty Copeland derby between Egremont and Whitehaven but Millom have been unable to raise a side for their game at Wigton.
Penrith A v Workington in Conference 2 is also off because of the Zebras’ front-row shortages while Silloth v Creighton is being played tomorrow night while Hawcoat Park v St Benedict’s is on Saturday.
