MATCH PREVIEW: Let the action begin

The Euros have reached the knockout stages, Wimbledon is underway, we have yet to welcome cricket’s first test match of the summer and golf’s Open is still a fortnight away.

And all this sporting trivia tells us it must be time for the pre-season matches to be launched and Reds will begin a nine-match schedule on Tuesday (7pm) with the traditional curtain-raiser at Whitehaven.

For the fourteenth successive summer, they will contest the Shaun Hocking Memorial Trophy, a match which has raised thousands of pounds for the British Polio charity.

Shaun was a genuine football man who served both clubs with distinction – a founder member of the Reds Supporters’ Association over fifty years ago and a popular chairman of the Whitehaven club in more recent decades.

West Lancashire League outfit, Whitehaven, emerged the inaugural winners back in 2011, the trophy was shared after a 2-2 draw in 2018 and Workington have lifted the cup eleven times overall, scoring freely in the process.

It will also be the official start of the Mark Fell era with Reds’ new boss having the longest wait ever for an incoming manager to make his debut in the technical area.  Mark was appointed as Danny Grainger’s successor towards the end of March and, although the team building is very much an on-going project, he will be keen to start implementing his style on a totally new squad. 

The squad have a handful of training sessions behind them but it will be a case of ‘learning on the job’ as new structures are put into place both offensively and defensively not to mention set-piece routines etc.

The season proper starts on 10 August but there is much work to be done before then.

• The match will be played at Whitehaven’s County Ground complex, access to which is via the lane next to the entrance to Whitehaven RLFC on Coach Road

• Postcode: CA28 9DD