Recap
A good, solid, workmanlike performance paved the way to a narrow away win against a decent Ashington side expected to do well in NPL East this term.
It was a tight, even contest settled by Jamie Allen’s first goal in a Workington shirt ten minutes from time.
Mark Fell used sixteen players overall including three different central defenders for each half. And the fact that both units kept a clean sheet pleased the manager as Reds adapt to the new style they have practiced for the past month.
Both sides were guilty of poor distribution during the first half with promising situations petering out due to a wayward final ball. Having said that, the two ‘keepers had saves to make.
Ashington’s Dan Staples pushed away shots from Dav Symington and Josh Galloway whilst Alex Mitchell kept out a wrongly awarded free-kick to deny Paul Van-Zandvliet then thwarted Craig Spooner with another fine stop.
Soon after the restart, Symington had another attempt pushed behind and from the subsequent corner Ashington twice cleared the ball of their line in a matter of seconds.
The hosts had a good spell and created a handful of chances but Mitchell dealt with three shots from distance with routine saves whilst there were no takers from inviting crosses that flashed across the Workington goalmouth.
Blue-shirted Reds opened the scoring with a fine goal following a move which started in midfield, was quickly switched to the left and finished by new boy Allen. He received the ball out wide from Josh Galloway who continued a decoy run down the left. This enabled Allen to cut inside and a precise, crisp finish found the bottom corner of the net.
And, after waiting so long to get their noses in front, the Cumbrians almost doubled their lead in their next attack.
Steven Swinglehurst found Steven Rigg with a pin-point pass with the latter controlling the ball on his chest. As the ball dropped, he shot but a superbly timed defensive block from Simon Jakab averted the danger.
Two more matches this week will give Reds’ boss Fell time to fine-tune everything and he didn’t rule out the possibility of further recruitment.
Ashington: Staples, Gascoigne, Summerly, Ross, Trialist, Jakab, Spooner, Sampson, Thomas, Van-Zandvliet, Giraud. Substitutes – Camarda, Coombe, Ormston, Maguire, Robinson, Exley, Kneeshaw.
Workington: Mitchell, McCaragher (Stephenson), Galloway, Trialist (Little), Trialist, Trialist (Wilkinson), Symington, Casson (Nugent), Rigg, Allen, Hubbold (Swinglehurst).
Referee: Chris Ford, Blyth