Recap

Reds’ best ever win at the Riverside Stadium, a clean sheet, three well taken goals, an important penalty save and a first league win on the road suggests this was the perfect away performance from Danny Grainger’s improving side.

Well, almost.  The one blemish which tarnished an otherwise faultless display was a harsh dismissal to Tom Mahone ten minutes before the interval.  He made a genuine attempt to play the ball, despite being on the ‘wrong side’ of Temi Ajibola, but the referee awarded Rammy a penalty before compounding the punishment by showing Mahone a red card.

A brilliant Jim Atkinson save brought a touch of justice to the proceedings, paving the way for a thoroughly deserved victory

A man down for the remaining ten minutes of the first half and twenty in the second, Workington effectively won the game in that period preventing the hosts from seeing the ball, when they had the man advantage, thanks to an exhibition of possession football

But the referee, who seemed to lose his authority somewhat, evened up the numbers by sending off Rammy’s Will Hall following his second yellow card offence in the sixty-sixth minute.

An eventful NPL West encounter saw Reds ‘in the mood’ from kick-off with their early enterprise rewarded with an eighteenth minute opener.  And it was former Ramsbottom player, Reuben Jerome, who cracked home an unstoppable shot on the turn, from fifteen yards, after David Symington had created the opportunity after a marauding run down the left.

Rammy somehow stayed in the game until the penalty incident involving Mahone.  James Murphy hit the ball well and true from the spot but Atkinson, diving full length to his left, kept it out with a fine save.

It took the wind out of Rammy sails and there was never any doubt about the outcome after that.

Symington had two efforts at goal, both off target, and Conor Tinnion was thwarted by a decent Charlie Monks’ stop.

Hall’s dismissal didn’t help Rammy’s cause and the free-kick awarded for yet another foul on Jerome was subsequently despatched into the net by the outstanding Tinnion, the ball finding a way past Monks at his near post.

The icing on a very tasty cake came in the seventy-eighth minute and it was Scott Allison who blew out the candles on Rammy.  He played a quick one-two on the edge of the area and dinked the ball past the helpless Monks for a typical sublime finish.

It was a superb team performance enhanced by a number of special individual contributions with the deserved three points lifting Reds a little nearer the right end of the table.

Ramsbottom United: Monks, Radcliffe, Murphy (Shannon, 77), Barlow, Hall, Holt (Creech, 59), Grimshaw, Fitzgerald, Ajibola (Jennings, 64), Rouse, Hasler-Cregg.  Substitutes – Rother, Donaldson (not used).

Workington: Atkinson, Mahone, Clarke, Wordsworth, Smith, Casson, Symington, Allison, Reilly (Rigg, 73), Jerome (Palmer, 80), Tinnion (Hooper, 77).  Substitutes – Lightfoot L, Moran (not used).

Referee: Matthew Langdon, Leeds

Bookings: Holt, Hall, Jennings, Fitzgerald, Rouse (Ramsbottom United), Jerome (Workington).

Red cards: Mahone (Workington), Hall (Ramsbottom United, second yellow)    

Attendance: 292