The score-line didn’t do justice to Workington Reds Ladies as they lost 2-0 at home to Penwortham Ladies in their first game of the season.
It proved to be an evenly contested game apart from a 15 minute spell at the start of the second half when the visitors scored both their goals.
The home side included five players making their full debuts for the club, all of whom made impressive starts to their careers with the Reds.
Penwortham started off strongly and applied pressure to the Reds defensive unit in the early exchanges, but didn’t really do enough to threaten the Reds keeper Laura Miller.
Having absorbed this spell of pressure, the home team started to build into the game and composure from the back feeding forward started to find gaps for the midfield to exploit.
This enabled the Ladies to establish a foot-hold in the game and balls fed forward started to find the lively Hannah Geen and Morgan McGrady on the wings.
Geen and McGrady were posing a real threat to the Penwortham back line and they started to carve out chances on goal. Both Geen and McGrady had fashioned out chances for themselves but shots either found the well positioned Penwortham keeper or narrowly finished wide of the goal.
Unfortunately the Reds were unable to capital on these and the game ebbed and flowed around the centre of the pitch.
The home side finished the half strongly and looked the more likely of the teams to go ahead but half-time arrived with both team goalless.
The break served the away side well as Penwortham came out with a new-found vigour and drive and applied pressure to the Reds back line.
This put the Ladies on the back foot and they struggled to break out from the back to feed forward.
Penwortham struck their first goal early in the second half when Jess Walling picked up a loose ball about 35 yards out. She drove at goal before striking a sweet shot from 20 yards to find the top corner and leave Miller without a chance of making the save.
The sustained Penwortham pressure was relentless and on the hour mark they scored their second goal when strong pressing from Amy Ascroft forced a mistake in front of goal and she slotted home.
Another chance came to the visitors soon after but Miller pulled off a superb full length finger-tip save to deny a third.
The Reds back line started to regain composure and reassert themselves. Balls from the back started to find the midfield pairing of Holly Redmond and Sophie Douglas in pockets of space.
Debutant Emi Rudd had shown glimpses of quality in the first half and her confidence grew as the game went on. She started to show composure above her tender years as she looked to switch play and deliver dangerous balls forward.
McGrady again threatened with exciting runs into the area only to be denied a shot through last ditch defending from the visitors.
Late in the game, Redmond started to impose herself on the left wing and created a couple of good attack to ask questions of the defensive resolve of Penwortham.
With five minutes to go, one of these raids resulted in a superb ball being crossed into the box to find the supporting Geen. Meeting it at pace the strike was good but unfortunately rose above the crossbar.
Laura Miller was awarded Player of the Game by Penwortham for her commanding performance coming off the line to defuse attacks and her outstanding save to keep the deficit to two.
Manager Paul Mackenzie said: “In the main we were really happy with our performance. Undoubtedly there are lessons to learn, as there always will be, but the commitment and effort of the team was clear to see and we couldn’t have asked for any more from them.
“As you’d expect, the team are hurting from the result but there is plenty of positivity too and that’s exactly as it should be. We went 2 goals down but our heads never dropped and we fought until the final whistle.
“From a coaching perspective, the hard work of Rebecca Scott and the content she has delivered during pre-season was transferred through to the way we played and it is really pleasing to see this”.
The Reds Ladies play Carlisle United Ladies FC away on the 31st of August and are next at home to Accrington Stanley Women FC first team at Borough Park on the 4th September with at 2:00pm kick off.
