MATCH PREVIEW: Copeland/Allerdale derby – take 2

Whitehaven and Workington will make a second attempt to play the Shaun Hocking Memorial Trophy match on Wednesday (7.30pm) at the County Ground.

The match was cancelled nearly three weeks ago due to an outbreak of Covid in the Whitehaven camp so it will be fingers crossed that the game goes ahead this time around.

Reds will take a sixteen man squad down the coast with the majority from the Development Squad, plus the senior players who haven’t featured recently.

Jon-Karl Benson’s team drew at Cockermouth in their opening friendly and have other matches arranged before starting their West Lancashire League programme.

Last year’s game wasn’t played until mid-August when six individual scorers helped Reds to a 6-0 win in a fixture played behind ‘closed doors’.

Hopefully, there will be a decent crowd there on this occasion, with the warm weather expected to continue. The charity match remembers the late Shaun Hocking who passed away nearly twelve years ago having served both clubs in an administrative capacity. The event supports British Polio.