Workington lost their first home friendly when they went down 3-1 to a well-organised and capable Blackburn Rovers Under-23s side.
Reds had opened their build-up with a 4-1 win at Whitehaven Amateurs nine days earlier after going behind.
This time, in front of 409 fans, Reds opened the scoring when new recruit Ben Hughes scored on 28 minutes.
Jordan Palmer, playing as a trialist, did really well to win back possession and slide the ball through to Hughes.
The former Marine winger still had work to do but he placed his shot perfectly into the far corner beyond keeper Joe Hilton.
That opening goal had come against the run of play as Blackburn had the lion’s share of possession and territory.
Jim Atkinson had saved particularly well from Junior Nsangou and Louie Annesley, while holding on to an effort from Sam Burns.
The lively Burns had played 15 games last season on loan at Scunthorpe Utd and he scored twice in two minutes to give Blackburn the lead at half-time.
On 42 minutes Liam Lightfoot gave the ball away cheaply as Reds tried to play out from the back and when the ball was worked inside to Burns he finished well at the near post.
Then it was Conor Tinnion who was dispossessed deep in his own half. A quick burst forward by Dan Pike opened up the Reds and Burns finished with aplomb into the bottom corner.
The second half was fairly even but with few scoring opportunities for Reds while Blackburn missed two sitters.
But the third goal after 85 minutes was sheer class.
Blackburn cleared a corner and Nsangou was given the ball a yard inside the Reds half when he spotted Atkinson well off his line.
He didn’t hesitate but cracked a shot over the stranded Atkinson into the vacant net.
Over the 90 minutes Reds boss Danny Grainger will have been encouraged by some of the performances from his trialists and young development players.
But there’s still plenty of time as the season proper doesn’t get underway until August 13 and there a good few friendlies to see before then, starting on Tuesday night at Borough Park against Dumbarton.
