After so many gritty performances so far this season team manager, Tony Gilmour, was hugely disappointed following the Vale’s fixture at Penrith. Vale created few clear cut scoring opportunities in a below par performance that contained few bright moments and certainly there was not enough to energy generated to blow the host’s fuses.

Vale started strongly but lost the services of Rob Ward when the centre suffered a knee injury early on. However, the Vale were first to put points on the board when the elusive Wayne Blythe darted inside at speed to cause confusion in the home side’s ranks, his try being converted by Gareth Price.

But the visitors relaxed and dropped their guard; they began falling off tackles in addition to conceding an alarming number of penalties. In the twenty seventh minute Penrith levelled the scores with a converted try when the Vale’s defence was split wide open.

A scrappy first half ended all square but the Vale regained the lead when Josh Whyke collected the ball and in a positive, confident break he went over for an unconverted try.

Unfortunately the Vale failed to build on or consolidate their lead. They retreated into their shells, something that had not gone unnoticed by Penrith who sensed the change.

A converted Penrith try in the forty sixth minute was followed by a solo effort from their scrum half seven minutes later. Lee Farnworth came on to bolster and beef up a flagging Vale side, but with time running out a Penrith penalty goal effectively took the game out of the Vale’s reach.

In the time remaining Issac Turton was on hand to finish of a determined thrust by the forwards for a deserved consolation try on what turned out to be a bleak day for the Vale, but not so for the Cumbrians who won their second game of the campaign.

On Wednesday evening the Vale play their rearranged fixture against Altrincham Kersal 2nds under lights at Broughton Park; kick off 8.00 pm.