Having made the trip across the Pennines to be greeted by relatively benign conditions in the wake of the weekend weather warnings, Shildon AFC rushed into a two-goal lead in the opening half hour and looked set to return home with maximum points in tow.
But it wasn’t to be as Penrith stormed back to eventually snatch all three points with a winner in the final ten minutes of the game.
It proved a damaging collapse by the league’s second place side against perennial relegation battlers, with the Railwaymen falling eleven points behind in the title race.
It all started so promisingly when Billy Greulich-Smith stabbed home from close range in the eleventh minute and Joe Posthill stepped up to convert from the spot in the 29th.
However, within three minutes, Luke Brown had halved the deficit with a low shot under Mark Foden and the comeback was on.
From that moment, the home side dominated and could have gone into the break on level terms, but Shildon were saved by the woodwork when an effort cannoned off the bar.
Within four minutes of the restart the Cumbrians did get their just reward when Luke Hunter beat Foden at his near post.
The home side were now in the ascendancy and were denied a third only by the linesman’s offside flag.
Shildon rallied for a period with a quarter of an hour to play and could have retaken the lead if Brad Hird had been able to keep his blazed effort on target.
As the weather deteriorated, it proved the final nail for the visitors when Penrith completed their shock comeback with ten minutes remaining.
A long through ball broke the Shildon back line and Connor Shields controlled before firing an unstoppable shot past Foden to make for a rather longer journey back across the Pennines than the visitors had expected an hour earlier.
Meanwhile, Shildon’s midweek fixture against West Allotment Celtic was called off earlier in the day when the weather once again closed in.
This weekend, the Railwaymen hope to entertain rock-bottom Tow Low Town and will be looking for a confidence boosting win given the promotion chasing pack are now hot on their heels.
Saturday’s game is scheduled to be followed by a trip to second-bottom Sunderland RCA next Tuesday evening.
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
