Chris Willcock was on receiving end last time Workington Reds won league

A big win for Chris Willcock’s Workington (Ben Challis)

The last time that Workington Reds won a league championship Chris Willcock was on the receiving end!

In 1998/99 Reds won the North Western Trains League title after putting together a 14-match winning run to end the season.

The final game was at home to Mossley, who just needed to draw to win the title themselves.

Willcock gave Mossley the lead in that game before goals from Stuart Williamson and Grant Holt earned Reds the win and the title.

Now manager of the Reds, Willcock wants to be part of the Workington celebrations this time, not missing out.

“I remember being down for so long after that game. We had gone there needing a point to win the league and we lost.

“It was hard to take and it took me some time to get going again, it was so disappointing.

“I want to enjoy the title-winning feeling with Workington this time,” he says ahead of what is being dubbed the title shoot-out at Borough Park on Saturday.

Warrington Rylands are the visitors and they still lead the Reds by a point, although Workington have a game in hand.

Intriguingly that game in hand will be staged a week on Saturday when Reds visit third-placed Marine who are currently six points adrift of the Cumbrians from the same number of games. Rylands don’t have a game.

The Warrington players watched Reds on Tuesday when they won 4-0 at Bootle – albeit leaving the ground after Dav Symington scored the third goal on 54 minutes.

Two of Reds’ last three home games have been watched by over 1,000 fans and Willcock is looking for plenty of vocal support on Saturday.

He says: “It can’t be over-estimated how much a vocal, supportive crowd helps a team so I’m asking the fans to bring their voices on Saturday.

“I want them to roar us to victory which would be a massive step towards winning our first league title for 23 years.

“I was on the wrong end of it last time. I want to be part of it this time round.”