Penrith Pumas.
The Penrith Pumas achieved a fantastic result away at Castletown Warriors in their first ever league fixture.
Although that was impressive, the thing that stood out the most was the way they worked hard for one another and put 110% effort in everything they did on the pitch.
Early forays into Castletown's half showed real potential to score. The opposition goals were peppered regularly with Joseph Ivinson breaking the deadlock midway through the first half with a devastatingly delivered shot just outside of the box.
Real resilience was shown in defence with both Justin Jahanamiri and Alfie Modlin running the back line well indeed. Kevin Prior was immense in goal pulling off some great saves in both halves.
The Pumas in a midfield stepped up a gear in the second half placing the Warriors under great pressure. Kai Hall regularly weaved his way down the left flank to deliver some well weighted crosses. Kallen Crouch never stopped working in centre midfield; his efforts being rewarded by a deftly scored goal. Myles Glassford's presence upfront was indeed noticed with great running and excellent vision. He managed to bag a well taken goal early on in the second half, much to the delight of the Penrith supporters.
Second half substitutions worked well too. Alfie Johnston strengthened an already solid back line. He proved he had a strong right foot scoring a thunderous goal midway through the second half. Alex Slessor worked tirelessly up pressing the opposition defence relentlessly.
Hopefully the Pumas can continue to play constructive football and continue their positive start to the season.

Castletown Reds U9s vs Penrith Blues U9s

The newly formed U9 Blues team travelled to Castletown for their first ever league match, having only played in a handful of 7 a side friendly games since stepping up from 5 a side futsal. Recently the U9s group had been split to create two teams and the lads coped well with all these factors, putting in a determined and hard-working performance as well as producing some great football.
The Blues were playing the better football in the early stages and kept pressure on Castletown through out most of the first half. Castletown’s attacks were well defended by Danny and Jack who held a high line and made their tackles when needed.
Blues attacked well down both wings through Rhys and Liam and the team pressed the ball high up the pitch and created a number of half chances before the deadlock was finally broken. A number of dangerous Rhys Ainsworth corners from the right had troubled the Castletown defence and it was a Rhys corner to the back post which initially found Harry and then fell to Nathan who found the bottom corner. The Blues took confidence from their breakthrough and soon after had doubled their advantage. A good team move ended with the ball played in to Nathan who neatly sidestepped his marker, transferring the ball on to his left foot before beating the ‘keeper from outside the box with a well placed finish.
The second period was more even and saw a little more pressure on the Blues' goal, although Luke remained mostly untroubled. David came in to defence and he and Jack continued to battle well. Luke’s distribution from the back was excellent and the Blues kept up their high work rate from the first half. Danny made some good driving runs forward and Rhys hit the top of the Castletown bar before the Blues sealed the result with a free kick from Harry which took a slight deflection off the Castletown wall.
The Castletown team never gave up and scored a good consolation goal with a looping finish in to the far corner from the right hand side.
Credit to both teams for a well contested game.

Penrith AFC U10 vs Castletown Utd U10
First game of a new season and the weather set the perfect tone for a good game of football.
Penrith got off to a good start pushing forward to get that early goal and it nearly paid off with Lucas Thompson thinking fast getting the ball up field for Joel Mounsey to collect only for the keeper to make a good save.
Castletown pushed back but Elliot Dent and Lewis Ritson were on hand to make some good interceptions at the back and turn defence into attack, Charlie Wright collected the ball in Midfield and made a strong drive through the middle passing to George Curry who’s good strike was saved again by the Castletown keeper.
Castletown made the first breakthrough picking up a lose ball in the box to poke home to take the lead.
Penrith kept their heads up and pushed on with Beau Romano getting some good crosses into the box followed by two quick fire strikes from Charlie and Joel only for both shots to come off the post and crossbar, good pressure from Penrith.
Jake Sowerby and Oliver Nicolson came on and looked lively but Castletown stayed firm.
Second half got underway and Penrith kept pushing for that equaliser, Cal Pearson collected the ball in the middle and made some good passes going forward, Jake was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet with a good strike that came back off the crossbar.
Finally Penrith made their break through from Jake who received the ball got it out of his feet to strike well into the net.
Penrith pushed for the winner but Castletown had numbers in the box to block all shots and soak up all pressure from Penrith.
Castletown made some quick breaks but Charlie McGuinness was there to make some good blocks and tackles, Lucas made some good saves late on but with 5 min left the tide changed with Castletown putting all the pressure on and it paid off with them picking up the second balls and scoring 2 quick goals.
Not the result we were looking for but great effort from all the boys, these are always close games between these two teams and a good learning curve for them all.

Man of the match as picked by Castletown Utd goes to Charlie Wright.

Penrith FC v Castletown Hornets played at Frenchfield

First game of the season for Penrith saw Castletown Hornets travel to Frenchfield. Penrith, knowing it would be a hard fought encounter after a pre season friendly ending 4 - 4 and over the last couple of seasons absolutely nothing between the 2 teams.
Penrith set of fast and whent 1 up but it wasn't long before it was level. Hornets were now moving the ball around with speed, the tricky forward Oscar pulling the strings up front being a real handfull for the Penrith back line and it wasn't long before it was 2-1 to Castletown but Penrith dug in and nicked a goal, 2-2 half time.

2nd half started and the football being played from both sides was exellent but again Castletown whent 3-2 up and the one thing about this young Penrith side is they don't know when to give up and leveld things up again 3-3. Oscar now looking for his hatric and got it 4-3.
Penrith found another gear and again leveld things up 4-4 last ten minutes Penrith's fitness was really showing and were unlucky not to get the winner in the last 10mins, had several chances but overall a fair result that both teams will be happy with.
A hard fought draw to start the seasons campaign of exellent work and a real dogged determination from the lads, they all showed real maturity in the game, the confidence is high throughout the squad and was there to be seen, good stuff lads keep up the great work.

Castletown coach gave Corey Tomkinson man of the match.