Tuesday night’s 3-2 defeat at home to Workington was difficult to stomach.
We are always sore losers and there were some bruised egos and pride was dented, but on reflection it was a good game and we have to give the Cumbrians some credit. Their front three are as good as we have faced this season and Scott Allison has been a real thorn in our side with five goals scored in the two league games played between the two sides.
Despite the defeat, we are still in a strong position with a six-point lead at the top of the Evo-Stik Premier and are at the J Davidson Stadium again today, hosting Stalybridge Celtic.
Highlights from the defeat to Workington:
Steve Burr’s side have had a difficult season but have picked up in recent weeks, particularly away from home… they won at Workington last Saturday, scoring four times and also won at Warrington a few weeks ago, so we know that we are in for a difficult game, as happened in the game at Bower Fold in September which ended scoreless.
We have brought in Chris Merrie on loan from Wigan Athletic… we have forged links with the Latics during the last few months, through their Academy coach, Greg Rioch, with a few of their young players featuring for our reserves and Chris is a player that we have been aware of for a while, who has made his debut for the first team and had a spell on loan at Southport in the Vanarama National League North earlier this season.
He will give us further options in midfield and I am also looking to bring a forward player in for the very busy schedule that we face between today and the end of the league campaign on April 28th.
Josh Hancock missed Tuesday’s game through sickness but has recovered and will be available today but one player who will not be featuring for us again this season is Mason Walsh, who has had to return to his home in the south for personal reasons. Mason is gutted to be leaving us, but it is possible that he may return at the start of next season, as he may be going to study at Manchester University.
It looks as if it is going to be very cold today but let’s hope that we can get the game on and continue our excellent season!
