Recap
Workington’s stop-start season took another retrograde step after a second half collapse at Northolme.
There wasn’t much between the teams after forty-five minutes but an obvious gulf in class by the finish.
But Reds remain consistently inconsistent, mainly from week-to-week but, on this occasion, from first half to second.
A decent showing over the opening forty-five minutes couldn’t be replicated after the break and the final scoreline just about sums up Reds at the moment. They cannot keep a clean sheet and, unless they score first, seem a beaten side if they go behind.
Once again, they conceded first and shipped two more goals in the second half. But luck was against them with Trinity’s first goal and their ‘equaliser’ just before the break.
No doubt about the quality of skipper Dylan Cogill’s twenty-seventh minute finish – a sublime curling shot which evaded a crowded area and the possibly unsighted, Alex Mitchell. But, seconds earlier, the two Stevens, Swinglehurst and Rigg, went to clear the same ball, got in each other’s way and effectively set up Cogill with a chance he wouldn’t otherwise have had.
It looked as though Rigg had atoned for his part in Trinity’s only serious attempt at goal in that first half when drove home a low shot past one of the Blues cup heroes, Dylan Wharton. David Norris had provided the assist for Reds’ top scorer but had been flagged offside in the build-up. Fine margins and all that!
Swinglehurst had narrowly headed wide with one first half attempt and saw another header land on the roof of Wharton’s net, both via Josh Galloway assists. At the other end, Declan Howe twice cleared the bar with shots he normally converts with his eyes closed.
Reds had kept last season’s Premier Division top scorer quiet, until his early exit from the game on a stretcher, sadly, but Javelle Clarke and Fraser Preston were a constant threat all afternoon.
Soon after the restart, Trinity had a ‘goal’ disallowed and then saw a wayward clearance strike Mitchell’s crossbar.
The crucial second goal came in the seventy-second minute and there was no route back for Reds after that. But Jordan Helliwell’s close range strike came after Swinglehurst had sustained a gash to his head, following a challenge from Joe Stacey. The latter was punished with a yellow card, the bandaged Swinglehurst was substituted with his replacement, Theo Farquharson, handed a debut.
Preston capped a good afternoon personally, and for his team, with the third goal a minute from the end of normal time.
Despite conceding three, Workington’s better performers were defenders although the efforts of battle-scarred Swinglehurst and Efe Ambrose were in vain, unfortunately.
Many of the others didn’t quite match their contributions of the previous week.
Mark Fell will have to shuffle the pack again this week, first for a Cumberland Cup tie and then a crucial league fixture next Saturday.
Gainsborough Trinity: Wharton, Simpson (Tuntulwana,19), Jackson, Johnson B, Lancaster, Cogill, Stacey, Helliwell, Clarke, Howe (Conway, 58), Preston (Hornshaw, 90). Substitute – Johnson K (not used).
Workington: Mitchell, Clarke, Fitzpatrick (Bell, 23), Jake Allan, Swinglehurst (Farquharson, 72), Ambrose, Stephenson, Hetherington (Christian, 85), Rigg, Norris, Galloway. Substitutes – Fulton, Eccles (not used).
Referee: Anthony Tankard, Sheffield
Bookings: Stacey (Gainsborough Trinity), Allan (Workington)
Attendance: 721