By Andrew McD0nnell (@AndrewSJourno)

Morpeth Town exited the Northern League Cup after a cruel 4-2 defeat on penalties to Penrith at Frenchfield Park.

Kevin Connelly opened the scoring after latching upon a deflection and curing into the top corner.

The visitors levelled deservedly when Mark Doninger curled a free-kick superbly into the bottom corner.

Ben Sayer and Sean Taylor missed penalties in the shoot-out as the hosts progressed through to the Third Round of the cup.

Morpeth came into the game having suffered a narrow loss to Newcastle United Under-23s in the Northumberland Senior Cup semi-final.

Mark Davison provided the game’s first chance when he headed on Sayer’s deep free-kick onto the roof of the net.

Penrith’s interplay on nine minutes led to their first opening and Connelly handed the ball off to Mathew Read on the edge of the area, and the midfielder struck wide of Karl Dryden’s goal.

Chances were few and far between until the hosts were handed a huge slice of luck on 21 minutes, they took full advantage and went ahead in the game.

Adam Main’s strike, which forced the ‘keeper to dive, was blocked and the ball fell straight to the feet of Connelly, who took a touch and curled into the top corner.

Seven minutes after Penrith took the lead, Morpeth had a chance to level the game, but after Sayer threaded a pass through to Taylor, the wide man curled just wide of the post.

There was only one more chance to follow in the first-half, and that fell the way of the visitors, Davison headed down Sayer’s corner, but Jordan Lawson cleared the ball off the line.

Taylor’s swerving shot shortly after the restart almost caught out the ‘keeper, but the Highwaymen drew level just before the hour mark after a brilliant turnaround after half-time.

Henderson was brought down on the edge of the area, and Doninger stepped up and curled the free-kick fiercely into the bottom corner to level proceedings.

The midfielder should have put Morpeth ahead soon after when he struck Henderson’s low cross back across goal and at the ‘keeper.

Morpeth were denied by the woodwork in the final 10 minutes of the game when Davison headed from off the foot of the post from a tight angle.

The forward and many of the Morpeth players had their head in their hands, their second-half display warranted a win, but the referee blew his whistle and the match would be decided by a penalty shoot-out.

There was confusion among both sets of fans with the first penalty taken by Read because the ball rifled back off the advertisement board.

The net didn’t appear to ripple, but word passed that the penalty did indeed go in, and Sayer followed up and blazed Morpeth’s first penalty wide of the target.

Martyn Coleman, Doninger, Andy Murray-Jones and Henderson all scored their penalties to follow up and make it 3-2 after three each.

Ben Jackson stroked home Penrith’s fourth, meaning Morpeth needed to score theirs to stay in the contest.

Taylor stepped up and side-footed the ball, and Jamieson guessed right and pushed the ball around the post and Penrith progressed through in the League Cup after a 4-2 win on penalties.

Morpeth have three days to put the result behind them as they travel to Chester-Le-Street, who sit bottom of the table, on Saturday.