MATCH REPORT: Cleator Moor Celtic 0-3 Workington AFC

Another good exercise for Darren Edmondson’s re-shaped squad with twenty outfield players each playing forty-five minutes and goalkeeper, Alex Mitchell, enjoying a trouble-free night as the only one to start and finish Reds fourth friendly.

It was a dominant performance from the NPL side and the only criticism would be that they squandered far more chances than those they converted.

Celtic’s new signing, Reece Singleton, was the first player to land a shot on target but the weak effort was dealt with via a routine Alex Mitchell stop. And the Workington ‘keeper was hardly troubled again, until the last couple of minutes, and then Ellis Trotter’s free-kick came to rest in the side-netting.

Other than that, a young Celtic side hardly troubled their higher-ranked neighbours but can take pride in the way they defended for long periods and kept going for the full ninety minutes.

It was a catalogue of missed chances in the first half or, to be fair, a case of squandered opportunities and three or four excellent saves from the Celtic ‘keeper, Scott Paden-Gale.

The former Workington stopper parried well to deny one of Reds’ trialists and Josh Galloway, dealing with shots from the edge of the box, before thwarting Kai Nugent after a fine save with his legs.

Tommy Dawson, Galloway and Nugent also failed to hit the target during the visitors’ purple patch before Workington opened the scoring after thirty-seven minutes.

Will McGladdery (inset) hardly put a foot wrong during his first half cameo then rifled a low shot past Paden-Gale for his first goal in a red shirt.

Will McGladdery

After a ten-man outfield revamp for the start of the second half, Reds doubled their advantage before Celtic realised who was who. A neat passage of play down the left culminated in Steven Rigg thumping home an unstoppable shot and it looked as though the flood gates might open when David Symington struck the crossbar with a ferocious shot soon after.

But Celtic didn’t crumble and defended with stoicism, keeping their opponents at bay. Logan Carson, keeping the family name going in the goalkeeping ranks, made two fine saves to deny James Bell and Rigg and then a pile-driver from the latter was bravely blocked by a green and white shirted defender.

A 2-0 defeat for Celtic would have been greeted as a morale victory on the Moor, but luck deserted them in the eighty-seventh minute when they were penalised for an unavoidable hand-ball incident. The referee awarded Reds a penalty and last season’s top scorer, Rigg, converted the spot-kick.

Plenty of good performances in red but not enough for Workington boss, Edmondson, to making any early judgement on his starting XI for the new season just yet.

Cleator Moor Celtic: Paden-Gale (Carson), Barwise, Jackman, Charlton, Penn, Singleton, Benson-Lester, Burns, Brennan, Smith, Stones. Substitutes – Atkinson, Jake Martin, Jamie Martin, Cueto, Trotter, Creighy (all used).

Workington (first half): Mitchell, Galloway, Leslie, McGladdery, Dickinson, Swinglehurst, Trialist, Ellis, Dawson, Nugent, Trialist.

(second half): Mitchell, Barnes, Little, Pickering, Hill, Bell J, Casson, Christian, Reid, Rigg, Symington

Referee: Ryan Woods

Attendance: 181