Last updated 12:10, Monday, 01 September 2008

Penrith 1 Clitheroe 3: A large crowd at Southend Road saw Penrith lose out in a hard-fought FA Cup Preliminary Round to Clitheroe, who play in a league higher than the Blues.

Clitheroe were straight out of the blocks and for the first few minutes Penrith struggled to get out of their own half.

The visitors exerted strong pressure on the Blues defence and won five corners in quick succession, but the back four of Birch, Jones, Grey and Robertson held firm and there was some wonderful saves from goalkeeper James Holland and a clearance off the line by Mark Birch.

After weathering the storm the Blues began to exert pressure of their own, and a shot by Michael Reed hit a post and bounced straight into the arms of a grateful keeper, before the same player had a shot well saved after good work by Dean Douglas put him in on goal.

On 17 minutes a long clearance by Holland released Reed and his lob was just wide, then two minutes later Douglas’s shot had the keeper scampering across goal to save at the far post. Penrith were really pushing the visitors back now, and on 24 minutes Mark Birch broke into the area and his cut back found Reed in space. His shot was goal-bound until the keeper tipped the ball over the bar for a corner.

The pressure on the visitors’ goal was great, and it paid off on 30 minutes when Birch chased what looked to be a lost cause and forced a corner.

The resulting cross was met at the far post by Wayne Robertson with a header which gave the keeper no chance.

Clitheroe now had to come out of their shelll, and Robertson had to be alert to cut out a cross, and from the corner Holland made a good save.

Such was the dominance of the Blues’ defence that it was always going to take something unusual to break them down, and so it proved.

A hotly disputed free-kick was awarded by the linesman on 40 minutes, and the free-kick was met by a Clitheroe forward who beat Holland with a good header low down to his right.

The Blues were not finished and looked to retake the lead before half-time, but Matty Lea was unlucky to see his shot hit the angle of post and bar with the keeper well beaten.

The Blues’ inability to defend set-pieces was their undoing in the second half, which saw long periods of pressure from the home side, but with no results.

On 50 minutes Holland was beaten by a shot from a corner, and 15 minutes later a mix-up resulted in a back-header not reaching Holland and a Clitheroe striker nipped in to put past Holland from 12 yards.

As much as the Blues pressed, they just couldn’t find a way past a resolute defence, although there were huge sighs of relief from the Clitheroe fans when the referee brought the game to an end.

This was a great performance by the Blues, who started the game very much as underdogs. Playing against a team from a step higher was always going to be a tall order, but the players rose to the occasion and were never outplayed in any department. It proved a good test for the Blues, and they came through it with flying colours, proof if it were needed that they have the squad to compete at a much higher level than they are at the moment.