A lot of positives have come from Jim Nichols’ first week in charge as Penrith AFC manager, according to the man himself.

Nichols saw the Bonny Blues claim a 5-3 win after extra-time over Durham City on Saturday to progress to the second qualifying round of the FA Vase and give the new Penrith boss his first win since he took charge.

Penrith came from 2-0 down at half-time to take a 3-2 lead, before The Citizens grab an equaliser in the final moments.

But a heavily deflected effort from Richard Faustino and a fifth Penrith goal from Jake Smith in extra-time sealed the FA Vase win for Nichols’ men.

The new boss said: “I cannot see us getting back into many games from 2-0 down. But there are positives to take from it.

“It is easy to look at the negatives and that is what everyone seems to do.

“But we have to take the positives out of it and say ‘let’s look at what we did right’.”

Penrith return to the bread and butter of Northern League action at Frenchfield Park tonight (7.45pm kick-off) against reigning FA Vase winners Morpeth Town.

The Highwaymen are currently in sixth place in the league table, just outside the play-offs, on 14 points from seven league games, while Penrith are languishing in 17th.

Nichols said: “They have been a good side for the last few years.

“What I believe is they have a big money backer from Qatar and they went to Qatar on a pre-season tour a few seasons ago.

“They tend to pick up the best players from the Northern League.”

Paul Robinson has been the Morpeth dangerman so far this term and Nichols was aware of the threat he could cause.

“He was with us for a short time when I was with Newcastle Blue Star,” he added.

“He wasn’t much of a goalscorer then. But, from a video I saw from a few weeks ago, he seems to get forward a lot from midfield now.”

It was certainly an entertaining start to life in management for Nichols at the weekend, who was appointed the Bonny Blues’ new manager last week after Mark Birch’s resignation.

He joked: “Any hair I had left just about disappeared after that.”

The Bonny Blues had began well at the weekend, before falling behind and struggling to respond before the half-time interval. And Nichols feels that shows how the players have been affected by the turmoil around the club in the past few weeks.

“There has been a lot of change in the last week,” he said.

“It has affected the players. But it is natural.

“As much as you don’t want to be affected by changes, it is natural. It takes people a little bit of time to adapt.”

The Bonny Blues boss also praised his side’s attacking showing on Saturday.

Nichols said: “We have goals throughout the side. I mean Andy Murray-Jones has not got as many goals as he would like.

“Martyn Coleman always scores goals and that is why most Northern League clubs are after him every season.”

Nichols also added he is hopeful of strengthening his squad in the next few weeks - but is in no rush to do so if the right player isn’t available.

He said: “It has been up and down this week.

“I am hopeful to bring a couple in the next few weeks. But I don’t just want to bring people in who don’t play.

“They need to make a difference for the first-team.”