Workington collected their biggest win of the season as an early Christmas present to go second in the table when they beat Kidsgrove Athletic 5-0.
Fog, which had hung around all day, made it far from perfect viewing but the three points, along with Warrington Rylands’ defeat, carried them into second place.
“It’s good to be playing again and winning well. We still had six senior players missing but I think it emphasised just how much a headache I will have when everyone is available.
“We needed to start scoring goals, so that was helped by this result and as I’ve said from day one, it’s always good to keep clean sheets,” said manager Chris Willcock.
But for Kidsgrove their defeat was compounded by having two red cards shown in the second-half to Alex Morris and Kingsley Adu-Gyamfi.
The hosts had taken time to break down stubborn Kidsgrove resistance who hadn’t really shown much attacking intent. However the visitors had actually gone closest to scoring with an angled shot from Kieran Brown which hit the post.
Reds had gone closest to scoring midway through the half after their best piece of build-up along the left. When the ball was played into the box Dav Symington set-up Nic Evangelinos and a well-struck shot was superbly turned behind by keeper Ryan Brown.
It took a minute before the interval until Workington grabbed the lead when Evangelinos headed home from close range after an initial corner had been cleared.
The game really changed five minutes into the second half when Morris pulled back Conor Tinnion in the box and as he was the last defender he was shown the red card. Steven Rigg duly scored from the spot.
Adu-Gyamfi was sent-off for a verbal exchange with the referee’s assistant and Conor Gaul added to the home lead with a well-taken third as he rounded the last defender and then the keeper before slotting home.
On 66 minutes Evangelinos fired in his second goal from wide on the left and five minutes later Symington added a fifth to the total with a good finish from just inside the area.
Back up to second place in the table Reds are next due in action on Monday, December 27 at Kendal Town.
