East meets west

Saturday’s journey to North East Lincolnshire proved to be Reds’ longest trip of the season and took us to an area of the country we haven’t visited since playing at Grimsby Town’s Blundell Park back in 1971.

It was also our first ever encounter against Cleethorpes Town, located just over a mile from Grimsby’s stadium, who are playing Step 3 football for the first time in their relatively short history.

To mark the inaugural meeting between The Owls and Reds, chairman Phil Norman presented an engraved salver to his Cleethorpes counterpart, Jason Ledden, prior to kick-off.

Phil Norman and Jason Ledden

We were well looked after at the HPS Plant Hire Stadium, the home of last season’s NPL

East Division champions, and the only blemish on a good day was the 2-1 defeat on a very decent grass pitch.

The return fixture will be in Workington on Easter Monday when we hope to reciprocate with a touch of Cumbrian hospitality.