Penrith made the trip to Leigh looking to cement their fourth place in North One West but came away a poor second after losing 21-8.

The defeat was particularly painful as Leigh had just got themselves clear of the relegation zone.

No-one in the Penrith camp would claim they hadn’t got what they deserved out of the game and that was exactly nothing.

They had badly under-estimated the opposition, struggled in the set scrummage the entire game and hardly won a line-out to make it a day to forget.

Leigh offered a strong-tackling defence and a good kick and chase but little else and on another day it would not have troubled the Cumbrians but on Saturday it was more than enough.

The build up to the game had an end of season feel about it and that ran over into the game.

Penrith had a decent start to the match. The home defenders seemed to think they could stand a yard in front of the off-side line and were pinged several times. Mike Fearon had two eminently kickable penalty shots but both went wide and that set the pattern for the day.

The two efforts were into the wind and when Leigh got themselves into the game they earned two similar opportunities. Both were converted with the assistance of the breeze.

Penrith were putting together the better patterns of play and could retain the ball for a few phases but then would make a simple mistake and end up back where they started.

All the time, however, they were coming up against a strong defence and any progress would have to be earned by wearing the opposition down, moving them about and creating gaps. They weren’t going to simply run through them.

They did create one such opportunity and it was full-back Ryan Egerton that found himself in space and was able to crack the defence and score wide out.

Trailing 6-5, Penrith then held Leigh at bay as they finished the first half hammering on the Cumbrians’ line.

While only trailing by one point and having the slight slope and the breeze in the second half the visitors would fancy their chances, especially if they could discover anything like their recent form.

This didn’t happen and things went from bad to worse. The harder they seemed to try the worse it got, with even the most reliable of players committing simple errors.

Leigh hit a simple penalty after half time to stretch their lead before scoring a try their persistence deserved to lead 14-5. A Matt Allinson penalty in front of the posts brought them back within a score but Leigh scored a second try and conversion in the final 10 minutes and even a losing bonus point evaded them.

Penrith face Vale of Lune this week at Winters Park and they will have to perform to a much higher standard if they are going to make a game of it.

Vale of Lune were too strong for relegated Carlisle , winning 48-7 when there was never any likelihood of the Cumbrians repeating their home win from earlier in the season.

Vale started the stronger and had most of the possession but poor handling coughed up a lot of opportunities and Carlisle were able to clear their lines for the first 20 minutes.

It took a Carlisle infringement to give the Vale full-back the chance to put points on the board from a penalty.

From there Vale pushed on and steadily built the score, first from a break on the right and then from a penalty try as the Carlisle scrum was repeatedly penalised by the referee, who also gave hooker Ali Randall the chance for a 10 minute breather.

By half an hour Vale had three tries under their belts and were cruising.

However an interception by Guy Graham and a strong run down the left saw him feed centre Dan Holmes, who showed the Vale defence a clean pair of heels to score under the posts, right on the stroke of half-time.

That was to be Carlisle’s only contribution to the score-line, as Vale powered through the Carlisle defence to score four tries in the second half.

The visitors were no match for this strong physical home side.