It's top versus joint bottom tomorrow when Carlisle travel to Ellesmere Port for their latest assignment in North One West.

Carlisle still hold a one-point advantage at the top of the table after their 31-7 home win against Broughton Park, while tomorrow’s opponents Anselmians are still looking for their first point.

It’s only the fact that they have a much better scoring differential than De La Salle (minus 49 to minus 125) which keeps them off the bottom rung of the ladder.

Yet they haven’t really been taken to the cleaners in their four defeats, three of which have been against sides in the top-six.

On Saturday, they went down 36-27 at Stockport and their other away trip ended 34-19 at Burnage. Home defeats have been against Blackburn (24-7) and Northwich (21-13).

It should be noted that Anselmians won their place in North One West through the play-offs, beating Aspatria quite handsomely, while De La Salle went up as the last champions of North Lancs/Cumbria. An example, perhaps, of the gulf that exists at the moment.

Carlisle weren’t at their most eye-catching on Saturday, winning ugly as the modern pundits often observe when the result is obtained without a free-flowing performance.

It might not have been champagne rugby all game but there were enough flashes of good rugby that promises much for this side as they develop over the season.

Carlisle had led 19-7 at half-time with tries from skipper Henry Wainwright and Grant Connon as well as a penalty try.

The second half fizzled out somewhat, with neither side able to exert any real dominance or grab the game by the scruff of the neck.

Perhaps Carlisle were hampered by the necessity for uncontested scrums as the visitors’ hooker and prop went off injured in quick succession.

Shaw Lorimer-Bell and player-coach Matty Shields scored the second-half tries.

Four games in, Penrith trail their neighbours by nine points as they can only reflect on one victory to date.

They weren’t too far off a second victory on Saturday when they lost 34-32 at second-placed Firwood Waterloo, which should be a boost ahead of their home clash tomorrow with bottom side De La Salle.

Looking back to that narrow defeat, they had secured two points away from home from a virtually impossible position with ten minutes to go.

Although they can ask themselves how they got into that position in the first place, in the final reckoning it felt more like two points won rather than two points lost.

The major problem, though, at the start of the season has been the numbers of missing players. Last weekend, the squad was not finalised until late on Friday night and the patched-up pack included three who were making their first appearances of the season.

Once again, head coach Dave Preston had to start, something he would not have envisaged when training resumed in July.

Although they had led for a while, Penrith turned round 13-6 behind and were chasing the game for much of the second half. Arriving at the 70th minute, they trailed by 21 points, so it was quite an achievement to get it down to two by the final whistle.

Jon Fell, Will Morgan, George Graham and Ed Swale scored tries for Penrith with Matt Allinson adding two penalties and two conversions. Swale also dropped a conversion to save time at the end but Penrith didn’t get another opportunity.

Tomorrow’s Salford visitors De La Salle are shipping on average more than 40 points a game and last week lost 58-7 at home to Birkenhead Park.

Aspatria bounced back from their 20-17 defeat at Cockermouth with a fine 25-15 win at old rivals Wigton – a set-back for the Greens after their big win on opening day at Hawcoat Park.

The result owed much to the brilliance of full-back Ken Bowes, starting his first game after several seasons out through injury.

Bowes made the first try and scored the second as the Black Reds built a 15-5 lead by half-time. Patrick Nouch scored an opportunist third try with Jack Clegg landing two penalties and two conversions.

For Wigton, Stephen Harris and Elliott Armstrong scored the tries with Dan Reed converting one and kicking a penalty.

Both clubs are in Copeland tomorrow playing very close neighbours.

Aspatria go to Whitehaven while Wigton visit St. Benedict’s. Interestingly, their hosts secured winning points for the first time on Saturday.

Whitehaven beat Upper Eden for the second week in a row (22-20 this time) while Benny’s were too strong for Hawcoat Park and were successful 39-17.

Keswick are the only team in the new-look Cumbria League with two wins from their opening two games but they had to work hard to beat Cockermouth 22-20 and should follow up tomorrow at home to the bottom side Hawcoat Park.