MATCH REPORT: Workington AFC 5-0 Carlisle United
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
An open invitation to the biggest house-warming party was well received, with almost 1,400 fans turning out to see Reds launch their groundshare with Workington Town RLFC at the Fibrus Community Stadium.
As pre-season games go, this was a very special occasion almost matching Workington’s departure from Borough Park three months ago.
Admittedly, it was a chastening experience for a very young United outfit but, from a Workington perspective, it was another pleasing performance in the build-up to proper, competitive football early next month.
United looked refreshingly young, almost angelic, when they strutted out on the pristine playing surface and a hungry home side exploited their naivety with a ruthless first half display.
The young Blues didn’t help themselves by conceding two own-goals but credit to them for sticking to the task and making a better fist of it after sunset.
Workington failed to score in their final fixture ‘across the road’ but were in the mood to do so at their new temporary HQ.
And that historic first goal was delivered after eighteen minutes with Brennan Dickenson driving home the opener from the edge of the area with his trusted left foot.
Reds fans are almost demanding that Dickenson becomes their marquee signing of the summer, even more so after he ran the show and left with the unanimous vote as ‘man-of-the-match’, quite literally in fact!
And Mark Birch’s wannabes and hopefuls were out of contention by the mid-way point of the first half, conceding almost identical goals in the space of ten minutes.
Tom Stephenson and Ceiran Casson had looked an effective outlet down the right flank for cream-shirted Reds, and it was from their teasing deliveries into the box the damage was caused.
Ben Aaron deflected home Workington’s second goal after Stephenson’s assist and Alex McDonough repeated the unwanted feat, shanking home the third from a Casson cross, leaving Sam Worth helpless on each occasion.
They were wounded at that point and suffered further punishment when Luke Hunter broke clear through the inside left channel. He tricked his way around Worth and nonchalantly rolled the ball into a vacant United net for a well taken fourth.
It hadn’t all been one-way traffic and Birch’s babes did create a couple of chances in that challenging first half.
Casson cleared one effort from Nathan Wheatley off the line and Reuben Towers blasted a good chance wide when he broke through on the right.
Worth will be keen to forget the first forty-five but restored some self-belief with a fine save to thwart Hunter, just before the referee ended a one-sided first half.
When Stephenson confidently netted Reds’ fifth of the evening, soon after the restart, one feared for the youngsters in blue – even the ball boys looked older!
Yet technically they were very good and, at times, their approach-play impressive but it is the physical side of the game that is the most important and they were obviously lacking in that department.
Dickenson’s flick-on had created the opening for Stephenson’s first goal since that crucial winner at Warrington Town in April.
Dickenson, meanwhile, continued to torment and had three further attempts, one of which rattled the crossbar, to add to his first half opener.
However, it was Stephenson’s goal which concluded the scoring, and the punishment for United’s kids, with regular second half substitutions taking all urgency out of this entertaining encounter as Workington settled into their ‘new’ temporary home.
Workington: Mitchell, Casson, Leslie, Ellis, Barnes, Whitehall, Stephenson, Nugent, Palmer, Dickenson, Hunter. Substitutes – Douglas, Dickinson, Allan, Rigby, Thomson, Hopper and Eccles.
Carlisle United: Worth, Hatton, Bell, Aaron, McDonough, Boertien, Wade, Tonge, Wheatley, Muldoon, Towers. Substitutes – Rafferty, Miller, Hodgson, Cummersky, Murphy, Stuart and Robinson.
Referee: Scott Henry, Carlisle
Attendance: 1,357
