Workington Reds started well at Witton Albion but slipped to a second defeat of the season, going under 3-2.
They had capped a bright opening spell by taking the lead on 20 minutes but Witton had equalised before half-time and went on to open up a 3-1 lead before Reds managed to pull one back.
It was a disappointing setback for Danny Grainger’s men after getting off the mark in mid-week against a side who they should have been capable of beating.
“We started well enough but didn’t sustain it. I thought we looked jaded and certainly didn’t play the sort of football I want them to. I tried to freshen things up with changes from Tuesday but it didn’t work for us,” said the Reds boss.
They are back in action on Monday at home to Clitheroe and he has two more injuries tpo worry about.
Greg McCarragher wet off after 28 minutes with what could be a recurrence of the foot injury that kept him out of virtually all the pre-season friendlies.
His replacement Bobby Carroll suffered an ankle injury in a tackle and limped off 20 minutes into the second-half.
Reds had forced a series of early corners and it was from one such flag kick that they went in front on 20 minutes. Dan Wordsworth got up really high to power a header past the helpless keeper Ollie Martin.
It was almost 2-0 minutes later when home centre-half Ben Harrison poked a back pass beyond his keeper and Martin was racing back desperately only to see it slip the wrong side of the post as far as Reds were concerned.
But gradually Witton came into the game and were close to an equaliser when Joe Duckworth grazed the side netting with a shot when he got on the end of a cross from Taylor Kennerley.
It was Duckworth who did put his side level on 39 minutes when he was left with too much space in the area and cleverly bent his shot round Danny Eccles.
Workington just couldn’t get back into the groove, giving the ball away cheaply with wasteful build-up play and they looked vulnerable to quick counters from the hosts.
So it proved on 62 minutes when Cameron Fogerty broke away down the left and his pull-back was expertly finished by the slightly built but impressive Duckworth.
Reds were unable to seriously threaten Martin’s goal, even though he didn’t look the most impressive of keepers. To be fair he did make a timely turn-over the bar from a Ruben Jerome header but that was about all.
Then on 81 minutes another break by Fogerty down the left resulted in a pin[point cross which found the head of Vani Da Silva to make it 3-1.
At least there was a response from Reds two minutes later when substitute Matty Clark lifted a ball into the box and although Scott Allison’s header was blocked Jerome was following up to drive the loose ball into the net.
In the second minute of the four added on Reds won a corner and Eccles was motioned forward by his manager. But when the ball was cleared Witton broke away and Eccles, along with Dav Syminton gave chase.
Unfortunately Eccles’ challenge was late and brought the plyer down with the result that he was shown a red card. Symington went in goal for the last couple of minutes but was not troubled.
