Penrith lost a third successive home game – but manager Darren Edmondson admitted he was “gutted” for his players.
The Bonnyblues were beaten 4-3 at Frenchfield by Birtley Town who have ambitions of finishing in the top five.
Edmondson said: “People say Penrith would have been expected to lose these last three games but I don’t agree with that. I think we’ve moved on from those days and should be disappointed we lost.
“We had lads taken ill the night before, others working and some just unavailable so we had to make changes and only had three substitutes.
“Yet I thought we played some good football, moved the ball around well and had 19 shots during the game. Scoring three goals at home should win you football matches, and they were good ones.
“Unfortunately we made mistakes for the first two goals of the game and that was a bad start for us, but generally we did well with the ball and I was gutted that we lost it.”
Birtley cashed in on Penrith errors to score twice in the first 15 minutes through Matthew Ward and Glen Hargrove and that was still the score at half-time.
Matty Moynan, part of an effective midfield, pulled one back for Penrith after 58 minutes – which was the first of four goals in a ten minute spell.
Daniel Wilds scored a third for Birtley (65) but Luke Hunter (65) countered with Penrith’s second before Kyle Wharton (68) was left unmarked at a corner and he added a fourth for the visitors.
Hunter did pull a third goal back for Penrith in the 90th minute but the visitors held on for all three points.
“I don’t want us to slip back down the League after reaching mid-table so I will be looking to pick-up points in our next two games. We entertain Seaham Red Star on Tuesday and go to North Shield on Saturday,” said Edmondson.
