MATCH REPORT: Lancaster City U23 6-0 Workington AFC U23

A very young Reds team crashed out of the Lancashire League Cup in wet and windy conditions at the Giant Axe.

They were taken out of their comfort zone of U18 football and thrown into the lion’s den against a more experienced City line-up.

But for twenty-nine minutes, Reds kept City at arm’s length and played some decent football without seriously testing the home ‘keeper, Harry Pemberton.

The floodgates opened after Ben Jackson’s goal, though, with the Dolly Blues scoring three before the interval and three more in a one-sided second half.

Lewis Mansell doubled their lead in the thirty-second minute with a good finish from an acute angle and Dom Lawson netted the third with a well struck cross-shot soon after.

Reds rarely threatened but Ted Thomson came close just before the interval, his low shot towards the near post was blocked at the expense of a corner.

Lancaster’s fourth goal didn’t come until the fifty-seventh minute when they outnumbered Reds’ defenders in a swift counter attack.  Lawson got his second of the night, adding to the two NPL goals he netted against Workington earlier in the season!

Joe Rumney didn’t have any chance with the goals conceded but prevented an even heavier defeat with three fine stops, the best of which keeping out a Josh Robinson effort.

City substitute, Finlay Brockbank, completed the scoring with further goals after sixty-six and seventy-three minutes.  His first, the fifth of the evening, was a close-range header and his second, a decent finish, created after a sublime pass had opened up the Reds defence.

The visitors battled gamely to the end but a consolation goal eluded them.

Lancaster City: Pemberton, Dale, Robinson, Jackson, Brownlie, Bjork, Kelly, Bennett, Mansell, Lawson, Caine.  Substitutes – Davis, Fearon, McDermott, Rickerby, Brockbank (all used).

Workington: Joe Rumney, Luke Routledge, Charlie White, Louis Pickering, Matthew Jackson, Rob Davidson, Ted Thomson, Ryan Handford, Harry McLinden, Oscar Pickering, Liam White.  Substitutes – Lennon Sydney, Ashton Hetherington (both used).

Referee: David Boston