MATCH REPORT: Workington AFC U18 7-1 Penrith AFC U18

Seventeen years old Alfie McDonough joined a select band of teenagers to score a hat-trick for Workington in the FA Youth Cup, as the West Cumbrians strolled through to the next round.

Goals after 14, 33 and 86 minutes saw the talented striker become the sixth Reds player to bag a threesome in the competition and claim the match ball.

It was a powerful display from the young Reds although Penrith could say they scored the best two goals of the match.

Luke Mason’s fine individual goal was netted when Penrith were three down in the twenty-seventh minute but an unintentional own-goal from Jamie Parkin would have been better had it been scored at the right end.

Instead, it extended Workington’s lead to three goals making Mason’s goal one of consolation, rather than sparking a fightback.

McDonough had opened the scoring when he was on hand to force home the loose ball after Lucas Thompson had parried Jayden Fulton’s free kick.

Fulton was also involved in Reds’ second when his pin-point cross was firmly headed home by Joe Carney.

Then came Parkin’s spectacular, but accidental, conversion followed by the Blues fine goal at the other end.

Workington moved up a gear in the final twelve minutes of the first half with McDonough, Kelvin Amor and TJ Cueto adding further goals. McDonough’s low shot went into the net off the foot of the post, Amor finished well after a fine assist from Cueto then the latter got in on the act himself when he deliberately thumped the ball over Thompson, who had ventured a few yards off his line.

The second half, in comparison, was more pedestrian and probably down to Penrith showing a bit more tenacity and Reds taking their foot off the accelerator, knowing it was job done!

And the only goal after the interval came four minutes from time, with McDonough racing through to collect Amor’s superb pass and guide the ball under the advancing Thompson to complete his hat-trick.

Alfie McDonough

Workington’s reward for the win will be a home tie against Spennymoor Town in the next round.

Workington: Rumney, Roberts (Gaskell, 60), White, Jackson (Palmer, 60), Telford, Cueto, McDonough, Amor, Carney (Whitworth, 73), Fulton (Thomson, 69), Rogers (Pickering, 69).

Penrith: Thompson L, Ellison, Davies, Clifford, Thompson J, Williamson, Tomkinson, Todd, Parkin, Barker, Mason. Substitutes – Moynan, Drago, Mohammed, Crooks, Souter, Waite, Fisher.

Referee: Cameron Sealby

Attendance: 101