Penrith hope to have more players available for their second Northern League game of the season on Wednesday at Heaton Stannington.
The Frenchfield side were short of 10 players from their squad for Saturday’s tough opener at Whitley Bay and under the circumstances played well before going down 2-0.
Manager Darren Edmondson was also an absentee – because of Covid – and has been updated by his coaching staff on the performance.
“It appears to have been a decent effort. Their second goal came after we had been pushing for the equaliser and they broke to score right at the death. Just before then we had missed a golden chance to equalise.
“I expect to have a few more available for Wednesday and I’m just hoping that I will be fit enough to travel,” he said.
If he can make the trip to the north-east Edmondson will come up against some players he helped coach in the youth system at Carlisle United.
But sitting across from him in the opposition dug-out with be a former player he signed for Workington in August 2007, who is now manager of Heaton Stannington.
Dean Nicholson led them to promotion last season via the play-offs after they were pipped to the title on the last day of the season by Carlisle City.
A former West Brom trainee the midfielder joined Boston at the start of the 2007/08 season and actually played against the Reds in the first match.
But by the end of the month he had joined the Reds and actually played in the last time Workington reached the first round of the FA Cup in November. He laid on Matty Berkeley’s equalising goal before Bury went on to win the tie 4-1.
He left the club in December because as a non-driver he was finding it difficult to travel for training and to matches from his Newcastle home.
