A frustrating home 0-0 draw with City of Liverpool took Reds second in the table ahead of Tuesday’s showdown with leaders Macclesfield.
But Reds will face a side who have just sacked their manager after today’s 2-0 home defeat by Guiseley in the FA Trophy.
Danny Whitaker had been under fire after recent damaging results in the NPL West and the exit from the Trophy proved to be the final set-back which cost him his job.
Reds will go there three points behind from a game more, but will know they should have been lining-up on Tuesday only a point in arrears.
They dominated this game from start to finish, but particularly in the second half when the vast majority of the action was in the City of Liverpool half.
Home keeper Jim Atkinson didn’t have a shot to save and it always seemed a question of when Reds would score – or would it be one of those days?
Well that’s exactly how it panned out with Reds being denied by Liverpool keeper Ryan Hamer, the woodwork and some brave defending by the visitors.
Reds boss Danny Grainger said: “I think you have to give some credit to City of Liverpool. They had a game plan to frustrate us, stuck at it and they saw it through.
“I thought we played some decent football, I couldn’t fault anyone and the one area that cost us was not being clinical enough in front of goal.”
Goalkeeper Hamer was the hero with some outstanding stops, particularly a 72nd minute penalty save to deny Lewis Riley.
Workington’s record goal scorer Scott Allison thought he had flicked the ball past the keeper to grab the win but Hamer flung out an arm to block.
Riley almost atoned for his penalty miss by striking a post while there were several brave defensive blocks by Liverpool defenders.
Hamer had also denied Riley in the first-half when he grabbed a close range effort at the second attempt.
Jordan Palmer went closest for Workington put in on goal by a ball over the top he drilled his shot across Hamer but fractionally wide of the far post.
With Atkinson basically only involved as a sweeper the nearest the visitors came to scoring was a snap shot from Danny Mitchley which curled over the angle of post and bar midway through the first half.
