Recap
Workington returned to the top of NPL North West for the first time since March following another competent performance on the road, a display which pleased manager, Danny Grainger.
“I’m delighted with the three points after a fantastic team performance today,” he said.
But he admitted a tweak to the formation didn’t quite work in the first half and it was only when they reverted to normal that they looked comfortable.
It didn’t matter in the end, Ossett’s closing down game, based on hurrying and scurrying about, kept them in contention until Reds got their goals but, after that, they offered little threat to Dan Wordsworth and Co until it as too late.
Wordsworth was immense as he and Scott Allison maintained their excellent individual starts to the season.
It was Allison who broke the deadlock just a minute before half time when Reds were temporarily down to ten men. Brad Carroll was off the field receiving treatment to a cut above the eye when Liam Brockbank ventured down the left. He clipped in a cross and Allison’s deft volley sent the ball into the back of the net for the forty-fourth minute opener
Yet another important goal for Allison, and the team. The finish from six yards saw him draw level as Reds’ third highest scorer of all time on 127 competitive goals but it also paved the way to a fourth successive victory over the ‘new’ Ossett.
And ten minutes into the second half, the game was over as a contest with Reds adding two further goals.
A slick passing move culminated in Carroll collecting the ball on the right before a deliberate pull back found Reuben Jerome who swept home his seventh goal in a productive start to the campaign.
Jerome’s father played football in Ossett for a spell during his career so fitting that he was there to see one of his foot-balling sons producing the goods.
The third, after fifty six minutes, was yet another success from a corner. Conor Tinnion crossed into the danger area and Sam Smith headed the ball firmly into the net to register his first of the season.
Allison was just wide after a clever lob over stranded ‘keeper, Max Dearnley, and then thwarted by a superbly timed last-ditch block by Ross Hardaker.
Ossett engineered a few half chances late in the game, the best of which saw Aaron Haswell shoot high over the bar from a central position.
The game was competitive but never feisty yet the referee upset both sides with a succession of yellow cards – nine in total. There was also a justified red when Reggie Waud clattered into Jerome and was sent off with eight minutes remaining.
Reds also finished with ten men as Jerome limped off before the end and all three substitutes were already on the pitch.
Ossett United: Dearnley, Gagen (Levi-Lewis, 65), Hardaker, Hogg, Burke, Clark, Connolly (Green, 53), Stockdill, Normanton, Harrison (Waud, 62), Haswell. Substitute – Teale (not used).
Workington: Atkinson, Kelly J, Brockbank, Wordsworth, Smith (Casson, 62), Hubbold, Holt, Carroll (Symington, 53), Jerome, Allison, Tinnion (Potts, 71). Substitutes – Clarke, Bowman (not used).
Referee: Luke Watson, Barnsley
Bookings: Gagen, Clark, Normanton, Haswell (Ossett United), Holt, Carroll, Jerome, Symington, Casson (Workington).
Red card: Waud (Ossett United)
Attendance: 400