Workington Reds manager Chris Willcock was pleased that Rowan Roache took it upon himself to shoulder responsibility for Reds penalty against Market Drayton.
Potential spot kick marksmen Scott Allison, Nico Evenagelinos and Conor Tinnion were all missing through injury while Dav Symington had limped out of the action earlier.
Willcock said: “Beforehand we’d left it between Ruben (Jerome) and Rowan to make the call. I was pleased that Rowan was able to get his first goal for the club because he’s deserved it.
“We brought him in for his creativity further up the pitch but because of our circumstances he’s had to fill a different role and I’ve been pleased and impressed with his commitment and hard work for the team.
“He has a great delivery from set pieces, as we’ve already seen, and when everyone is fit I can see some interesting discussions among the lads as to whose taking particular free-kicks.
“Rowan could have had a hat-trick on Saturday because after his penalty the keeper made two very good saves to keep out his efforts.”
Roache, 21, a Republic of Ireland age group international, had five years at Blackpool until he was released in January 2020.
At the time he spoke of his frustrations at being released from Bloomfield Road when many supporters felt he was certain to be one of the rare breed who makes the transition there from youth team to first team on a regular basis.
He had scored 30 goals in just 30 games for the youth team during the 2016/17 season as they won the Lancashire FA Youth Cup as well as the North West Youth Alliance League.
Roache then went on to play a pivotal role in Blackpool’s progress to the semi-final of the FA Youth Cup when they lost out to an Arsenal side which included Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe. Bradford City, Blackburn and Ipswich were all beaten on the run to the semi-final.
Yet since that run ended in 2018, Roache’s Blackpool career stalled as he had loan spells with Southport, FC United, Lancaster City and Bamber Bridge.
It was at Bamber Bridge that he was spotted by Willcock and his name went into the manager’s notebook for future reference which has now produced a new Workington player.
But this will not be a mere injury stopgap signing as Roache has the ability to forge a career that might have stalled at Blackpool but can be reignited in a successful Workington side.
