Workington Reds manager Chris Willcock is happy to take a break from competitive football this week as his squad recover from a spate of injuries.
Saturday’s game at Widnes saw them without nine senior players – eight of them through injuries – and that was the first time they had finished a match without a fresh injury.
Willcock said: ”We should have one definitely back on Saturday and several others ready in a fortnight. But nobody is going to be rushed back. They will be worked back in gradually.
“It’s good that we have no mid-week match to contend with and I’m absolutely delighted that there’s only one Tuesday game left on October 5. After that, it will be Saturday to Saturday which will be a relief.
“The fact that we are top and unbeaten after eight games in which we regularly losing players to injury says a lot about the type of people we have in the squad.”
Reds have won six and drawn two of their eight matches so far and all but one have been against teams in the top half of the table. The only one in the lower half was against Market Drayton who are currently bottom.
“While the injuries were mounting we were facing some testing games so that was another positive for the squad that we came through them unbeaten,” he said.
Reds are back at home on Saturday when they entertain 1874 Northwich who are 14th of 20 in NPL West.
There are two clubs in Northwich and this is the one owned by the fans which was only founded in 2012 and has just come up from the North West Counties Premier Division.
They had all been supporters of Northwich Victoria but had the chance to form a new club because of their disenchantment over the way the club had been run for many years. They chose 1874 because that’s when the original Victoria team played for the first time.
