Jake Cottrell, the experienced midfielder signed by Workington Reds 10 days ago from Avro won’t be joining the West Cumbrians.
Cottrell, 33, made history at the weekend by becoming the first player ever to sign a contract for the North West Counties League club, which rules him out of playing for the Reds.
Cottrell joined Avro at the start of this season from Ashton United after previously spending the majority of his career with FC United and Chorley.
With Chorley he won the Northern Premier League title in 2013 as well as promotion to the Conference National in 2018.
His all-action displays in the heart of midfield have been a key factor in the Oldham club’s successful campaign in their first full season in the NWCL Premier Division.
Manager Alex Frost admitted it was an historic development and said: “I think initially it may surprise some people to put a player of Jake’s age on a contract. However, anyone who has watched him perform over the last season will know just how he is valuable to our team and our club.
‘He epitomises the attitude, the work rate and the quality that we are going to need if we are going to progress, and that is why he still courts attention from clubs at a higher level of non league football than ourselves.
‘We wanted to show our commitment to him and our intent to progress as a football club by giving him a twelve month contract, and we are delighted that he has chosen to show the same commitment to us.”
Reds boss Chris Willcock said: “We signed him on dual registration to provide cover for our squad but now he’s signed a contract at Avro that won’t be happening.
“We were always happy with our squad, it was just to provide experienced cover if we ran into problems over the last few games.”
